The Saudi Export-Import Bank (Saudi Exim) has extended a US$100mn credit line to Turkey’s Ziraat Bank as it seeks to expand non-oil exports to the Turkish market. 

The export credit agency’s chief executive, Saad bin Abdulaziz Alkhalb, signed the deal on May 17 in Istanbul, as Saudi Arabia continues efforts to diversify its economy and increase non-oil exports to 50% of GDP. 

The transaction comes just four days after Saudi Exim signed two agreements with the Saudi National Bank, also aimed at driving non-oil exports. 

The agreements consist of a major murabaha financing facility for the Riyadh-headquartered lender, as well as a commercial and political risk insurance policy for documentary credits, the agency says. 

Saudi Exim is a relative newcomer among export credit agencies, having launched in early 2020. However, it has already boosted non-oil exports to more than 60 countries, and last year cited Turkey among its key target markets. 

The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a think tank that encourages economic ties between the US and the Arab World, says in an April report that non-oil products accounted for 33% of all goods and services exports from Saudi Arabia in 2023, up from 26% in 2018 – though notes oil remains “the dominant economic force”. 

In January this year, Saudi Exim extended a US$25mn trade finance credit line to Pakistan’s Bank Al Habib, also in support of boosting non-oil exports. 

The facility was issued in partnership with the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, the trade finance arm of the Islamic Development Bank, and builds on a 2022 framework agreement between the two institutions.