Oil and gas have advanced past technology and communications to become the leading sector in the Forbes 2019 list of the world’s largest public companies with a 16.2 per cent y-o-y growth in revenue generation, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company
GlobalData analysed the annual change in sales and profits of the top 10 sectors by sales and the geographical spread of Forbes Global 2000’s largest public companies and normalised into appropriate sectors.
The data company found that the biggest gainer in profit growth was the oil and gas sector, with an increase of 36.3 per cent between 2018 and 1919, followed by technology and communication with 19.8 per cent, metals and mining with 13.6 per cent, banking with 12.6 per cent, and pharmaceuticals and health care with 11.8 per cent.
Asia-Pacific (APAC) reported the highest sales growth of 8.2 per cent, followed by the Middle East and Africa with 7.5 per cent, North America with 5.7 per cent and Europe with two per cent. The sales growth in APAC was supported by rapid urbanisation, stable economic growth, structural reforms and increasing millennials.
The Middle East and Africa reported the highest profit growth of 60.4 per cent on the back of strong performance of the oil and gas sector, followed by South and Central America with 47.1 per cent.
Parth Vala, a company profiles analyst at GlobalData, said, “The Declaration of Cooperation between OPEC member countries and 11 non-OPEC oil-producing countries on 30 November 2017 for voluntary production adjustments to about 1.8 mmbbl per day during 2018 had a positive impact on the oil and gas sector.”
