Saudi Economy Editor, Gulf Business Review
Omar Al Harbi covers the Saudi economy, public finance and Vision 2030 programmes, concentrating on delivery data and the boundary between targets and recorded results.
The beat is reported from official statistics, regulator publications, company filings and named institutional research. Forecasts, commitments and completed outcomes are labelled separately.
Omar's Vision 2030 coverage is built around delivery measures. Targets, budget allocations, awarded contracts, construction milestones and recorded economic results are kept separate so that the scale of an ambition does not become a substitute for evidence of completion.
His public-finance beat also connects oil revenue, government spending and private-sector activity. He uses Saudi national data to show how those channels move through employment, investment and company demand rather than treating diversification as a single headline percentage.
The IMF says around 80% of employed Saudi nationals are highly exposed to AI. We examine what that means for jobs, productivity, Saudization and Vision 2030.
Saudi PIF is reportedly considering merging Electronic Arts with Savvy Games, potentially creating a gaming giant spanning EA Sports FC, Battlefield and major mobile titles.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment and IAMAI signed a three-year fintech and startup cooperation agreement covering investment, market access and cross-border expansion.
UAE PMI rose to 55.3 and Saudi Arabia's PMI to 53.8 in August 2026. We compare demand, exports and what the readings say about Gulf non-oil growth.
A headline contraction or expansion can be driven by production policy while domestic sectors follow another path.
Announced value, committed equity, signed debt, awarded contracts and cash spent are different measures.
Banking, payments and external data arrive together, but each series has its own period and revision cycle.
Citizen unemployment, total unemployment and participation are separate series whose denominators matter.
A project announcement, a signed contract and an operating asset describe three very different stages of economic activity.
PIF launched HUMAIN to build data centres, cloud infrastructure, AI models and applications. Why the structure matters for Saudi Arabia's AI and diversification strategy.
A population above 35 million expands the domestic market, but nationality, age and labour-force composition determine where demand actually appears.
Targets, completed outputs and wider economic outcomes answer different questions inside the annual report.