Saudi Arabia's trade balance recorded a surplus of SR61.52 billion in the second quarter of 2026, an annual growth rate of 62%. Total merchandise exports rose 4% year on year to approximately SR285.98 billion while merchandise imports declined 5% to SR224.46 billion, according to GASTAT data.
Trade finance teams at Saudi banks should focus less on the 62% surplus growth and pay more attention to the 5% drop in imports, since their fees come from the part of the business that has decreased.
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Robotic surgery, performed remotely
Saudi Arabia's Seha Virtual Hospital completed 11 consecutive remote robotic surgeries, including the second remote lobectomy and fifth remote pneumonectomy performed anywhere in the world, with surgeons in Riyadh operating on patients in Hail and other regions.
A surgeon in Riyadh successfully performed surgery on a patient in Hail without either of them needing to travel. This occurred eleven times in a row, proving that distance is no longer an obstacle to effective medical care.
Saudi carries half of Gulf tourism
Saudi Arabia's travel and tourism sector contributed $178 billion to the economy in 2025, 46% of the entire Middle East's travel and tourism economy, growing 7.4%, nearly double the global rate of 4.1%, with international visitor spending up 8.2% against a 3.2% global rate.
Nearly half of the entire region's tourism economy now lies in Saudi Arabia, growing at twice the global rate, a shift large enough that the map of Middle Eastern travel needs to be redrawn before the guidebooks catch up.
Now the burger chain discloses
The 2027 electricity tariff disclosures have reached consumer-facing companies. Burgerizzr expects about a 1% rise in annual cost of revenue. National Gypsum expects annual production costs to rise about 1%. Watani Steel expects total cost of sales to rise 1.12%. National Building & Marketing expects its subsidiary Ajeej Steel's energy costs to rise about SAR 3.5 million from 2027.
When a restaurant chain reports the same 1% as a gypsum plant, it shows that the tariff change is affecting every part of the economy that uses power, not just heavy industry.
