The Arab Monetary Fund revealed that the construction sector in the Arab countries has recovered from the effects of the “Covid-19” pandemic, and the sector’s contribution to the GDP for the year 2021 amounted to about $186.8 billion, compared to $178.3 billion in 2020, with a growth of 4.7%.
The Fund added, in a report, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recorded the highest levels of the construction sector’s contribution to the GDP, with about $45.5 billion and $36.8 billion, respectively.
According to the Arab Monetary Fund, Egypt ranked third with about $27.3 billion, then Qatar with $24.1 billion, Algeria with $19.8 billion, Morocco with $7.7 billion, and Oman with $6.4 billion. The construction sector also contributed with output ranging between $1 and $6 billion in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sudan, Libya and Jordan. However, the contribution to the gross product sector in other Arab countries was less than one billion dollars
The report pointed out that the cement industry in the Arab country witnessed a growth of 7% last year compared to its level in 2020, as cement production increased to about 231.9 million tonnes, which constitutes 53.4% of the total design capacity of cement factories in the Arab countries.
The local production of cement accounted for about 98.3% of the total Arab consumption of the cement commodity in 2021, in conjunction with the demand increase for cement in the same year by about 6.7%. Statistics also show the designed production capacities of cement production and grinding factories. The factories in the Arab countries grew from approximately 416.1 million tonnes to 43.4.5 million tonnes between 2018 and 2021.
According to the population indicators of the Arab countries, the Arab per capita share of iron and steel production increased to about 73.9 kg per capita in 2021, compared to 67.3 kg per capita in 2020.
The report stated that iron and steel production in Arab countries covers only 56% of the total domestic consumption, indicating many promising opportunities for investment in mining iron ores, smelting iron scrap and iron production.
