Country Overview
Saudi Arabia has been implementing significant economic reforms as a part of its Vision 2030, including reforms to the ease of doing business, getting construction permits, access to credit, resolving insolvency, and improvement across its procurement and permit processes. These reforms are encouraging the entry of new businesses, adding transparency to procurement processes, and increasing competition. While government debt levels have increased, and may be affected over the long-term by the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia remains in a comfortable position to fund future infrastructure projects and continue its reforms. Most recently, newly implemented insolvency and procurement laws have been implemented, which is yet to be reflected in InfraCompass rankings.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
23,507 USD
Population
35.5 million persons
Infrastructure quality
78.1 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment
2.5% of GDP
Infrastructure gap
0.5% of GDP

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
51
5
48.4
31
8
75.8
29
25
84.9
31
11
80.7
70
17
15.8
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

51
5
48.4
Aspiring
69
3
44.9
Emerging
31
8
75.8
Top performer
29
25
84.9
Top performer
31
11
80.7
Top performer
70
17
15.8
Emerging
21
2
54.4
Top performer
32
6
40.1
Top performer

Metric Overview

Strengths

Registering property

According to the World Bank, it now takes an average of one and a half days to register a property in Saudi Arabia. This marks a significant improvement on the average of 8 days it took in 2014 and compares favourably with the 26.6 day average across the Middle East and North Africa.

Financial stability

Saudi Arabia's banking sector shows resilience and stability, with indicators showing a liquid and well-capitalised system.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank it takes 5.4% of income per capita to start a business, slightly above the 4.7% average for High Income Countries. Lowering costs to start a business could ease the entry of new firms.

Registering property

According to the World Bank, it now takes an average of one and a half days to register a property in Saudi Arabia. This marks a significant improvement on the average of 8 days it took in 2014 and compares favourably with the 26.6 day average across the Middle East and North Africa.

Financial stability

Saudi Arabia's banking sector shows resilience and stability, with indicators showing a liquid and well-capitalised system.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank it takes 5.4% of income per capita to start a business, slightly above the 4.7% average for High Income Countries. Lowering costs to start a business could ease the entry of new firms.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

High income country average

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Opportunities to Grow

Recovery rate

According to the World Bank, the recovery rate for insolvency in Saudi Arabia is low, due to a deficiency of bankruptcy and insolvency laws. However, Saudi Arabia has recognised this and a new Insolvency Law was introduced in April 2019 as part of Saudi Vision 2030. As data for the World Bank's Doing Business Report was collected between February and June 2019, it does not account for the outcomes of the new Insolvency Law. Given this, it is anticipated that this metric will improve in the foreseeable future.

Strength of insolvency framework

Historically, Saudi Arabia has lacked modern bankruptcy regulations. However, given the recent introduction of a new Insolvency Law, this metric is also anticipated to improve in the foreseeable future when the new law is reflected in updated data in the World Bank Business Report.

Economic analysis assessment

According to the World Bank, Saudi Arabia does not require the assessment of infrastructure projects based on their impact on the economy or community.

Recovery rate

According to the World Bank, the recovery rate for insolvency in Saudi Arabia is low, due to a deficiency of bankruptcy and insolvency laws. However, Saudi Arabia has recognised this and a new Insolvency Law was introduced in April 2019 as part of Saudi Vision 2030. As data for the World Bank's Doing Business Report was collected between February and June 2019, it does not account for the outcomes of the new Insolvency Law. Given this, it is anticipated that this metric will improve in the foreseeable future.

Strength of insolvency framework

Historically, Saudi Arabia has lacked modern bankruptcy regulations. However, given the recent introduction of a new Insolvency Law, this metric is also anticipated to improve in the foreseeable future when the new law is reflected in updated data in the World Bank Business Report.

Economic analysis assessment

According to the World Bank, Saudi Arabia does not require the assessment of infrastructure projects based on their impact on the economy or community.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

High income country average

Governance:
Recovery rate

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
51
5
48.4
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Saudi Arabia

High Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

0.0
68.3

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

52.8 (-3.9)
74.3

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

Yes
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

60.0 (+23.3)
48.1

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

41.4 (-0.9)
61.9

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Saudi Arabia

High Income Countries Average

0.0
68.3
52.8 (-3.9)
74.3
Yes
-
60.0 (+23.3)
48.1
41.4 (-0.9)
61.9
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Saudi Arabia has been implementing significant economic reforms as a part of its Vision 2030, including reforms to the ease of doing business, getting construction permits, access to credit, resolving insolvency, and improvement across its procurement and permit processes. These reforms are encouraging the entry of new businesses, adding transparency to procurement processes, and increasing competition. While government debt levels have increased, and may be affected over the long-term by the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia remains in a comfortable position to fund future infrastructure projects and continue its reforms. Most recently, newly implemented insolvency and procurement laws have been implemented, which is yet to be reflected in InfraCompass rankings.
GDP per capita

23,507 USD

Population

35.5 million persons

Infrastructure quality

78.1 (0-100 best)

Infrastructure investment

2.5% of GDP

Infrastructure gap

0.5% of GDP

GDP

779.3 USD billion

GDP growth rate

0.2%

GDP per capita growth rate

-2.9%

Gini coefficient

42.2 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

23.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

-1.1%

Summary credit rating

76.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

5.9%

Urbanisation ratio

84.0% of total population

Road connectivity

100.0 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

5.2 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

4.5 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

5.4 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

4.8 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

99.4% of population

Electricity supply quality

8.1% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

9.5% of population

Reliability of water supply

5.8 (1-7 best)

Digital Adoption Index

0.7 (0-1 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

111.1 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

5.6 per 100 population