“Fighting poverty has always been at the core of our partnerships & engagements with our member countries.
Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, tumbled at a 7.3 percent annualized rate last quarter, the deepest since the third quarter of 1947, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The central bank data further revealed that real estate loans increased by 1.3 percent to SR26 billion in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2021.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, the real estate loans for corporates recorded a higher growth rate at 4.74 percent against 0.72 percent increase that was seen in retail loans.
The commerce sector came second with having 21.5 percent share, followed by the services sector which claimed 15.5 percent share in the first quarter.
The surge was mainly attributed to an increase in net income of non-real estate finance companies from SR19 million in the fourth quarter of last year to SR776 million in the first quarter of 2022.
When compared to the first quarter of 2021, the net income of non-real estate finance companies almost doubled, to SR539 million, up 98 percent from SR271 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.