OREANDA-NEWS. BMI View: Over the forthcoming years, growth in Saudi Arabia's pharmaceutical and healthcare markets will remain elevated. The government's ongoing commitment to sector development will continue to attract investments from multinational drugmakers and healthcare companies. More recently, the Kingdom has attracted significant attention from the South Korean healthcare industry. Saudi Arabia's economic diversification plans, dubbed 'Vision 2030', include a promising long-term healthcare strategy. The prolonged period of subdued oil prices and regional instabilities present downside risks to our otherwise positive outlook.

Headline Expenditure Projections

- Pharmaceuticals: SAR31.75bn (USD8.46bn) in 2015 to SAR35.33bn (USD9.42bn) in 2016; +11.3% in both local currency and US dollar terms. Forecast unchanged from Q216.

- Healthcare: SAR142.93bn (USD38.11bn) in 2015 to SAR153.60bn (USD40.94bn) in 2016; +7.5% in local currency terms (+7.4% US dollar terms). Forecast in line with Q216.