Riyadh: The Saudi economy shrank by 0.5 percent in 2017 for the first time in eight years due to a drop in oil production, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
The last time the OPEC kingpin´s economy contracted was in 2009, when gross domestic product dropped 2.1 percent after the global financial crisis sent oil prices crashing.
The world´s leading crude exporter announced an expansionary budget on Tuesday in a bid to stimulate the sluggish economy.