Riyadh, July 5: Unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia has peaked to 12.9 per cent despite the exodus of over 234,000 foreign workers from the oil-centric economy in the first quarter.

As per the data released by the General Authority for Statistics, a total of 1.07 million unemployed job seekers were recorded in Q1. The numbers, amounting to 12.9 per cent of the population, are highest ever since 1999.

During the same period, the amount of employed Saudi workforce dropped from 3.163 million to 3.150 million.

Market analysts have attributed the sharp surge in unemployment, along with dip in the employed workforce, to the stern measures imposed by the government on the private sector.

In a bid to shorten the fiscal deficit gap, the regime under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman introduced an additional 5 per cent value-added tax. The austerity measure, experts claim, is hurting the private sector which has already been struggling.

Apart from the new taxation drive, the 'Saudisation measures' adopted by the regime has dealt a major blow to the private businesses, most of whom employed the inexpensive foreign labour.

Under the Saudisation programme, a firm is charged with SAR300 or SAR400 ($80-107) per foreign worker it employs. The charges are levied per month.

The measures, which have been criticised by labour-exporting nations, have led to the exodus of nearly 1 million foreign workers from the Saudi soil. In the last quarter, nearly 277,000 workers had left for home.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 05, 2018 05:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).