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Saudi Arabia Aims to Attract Huge Investments in Virtual World 

Saudi Arabia tops regional countries in adopting advanced technologies, including virtual reality. (Asharq Al-Awsat) 
Saudi Arabia tops regional countries in adopting advanced technologies, including virtual reality. (Asharq Al-Awsat) 
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Saudi Arabia Aims to Attract Huge Investments in Virtual World 

Saudi Arabia tops regional countries in adopting advanced technologies, including virtual reality. (Asharq Al-Awsat) 
Saudi Arabia tops regional countries in adopting advanced technologies, including virtual reality. (Asharq Al-Awsat) 

Saudi Arabia is seeking to attract substantial global investments in advanced technologies, especially in NEOM.  

A recent study indicated that the metaverse was the next generation of the internet, potentially heralding a new virtual, interconnected reality seamlessly woven into the world. 

The paper, "Creating a New Reality: The Metaverse in MENAT," prepared by the Boston Consulting Group, studied how to unlock the promises of the metaverse in the region, focusing on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye and Egypt.  

It said Saudi Arabia showed high readiness for metaverse adoption across key enablers, although some gaps remain in SME readiness, ICT talent, and cryptocurrency.  

Saudi Arabia boasts key infrastructure for the metaverse, with 98 percent of individuals using the internet.  

The Kingdom ranked first out of 130 countries for school internet access, fourth for home internet access, and fifth worldwide for median mobile internet connection speed.  

The study noted that Saudi Arabia enjoys high readiness across key technological metrics, including 74 percent smartphone subscription – high for the region and higher than the United States - and an average of 0.77 smartphones installed per person, which is in line with the regional average. 

The country is a leader in AR/VR headset sales and growth, with sales expected to double by 2025. It ranked 2nd (of 130 countries) in cybersecurity.  

Indications point to high consumer readiness for the metaverse: 60 percent of adults are familiar with the concept, and 78 percent of the population has basic ICT skills, which is high for the region.  

According to the study, Saudi Arabia has 82 percent social media penetration, 90 percent of the population uses YouTube, and residents spend 8.1 hours/ day on the internet.  

It also reported that Saudi Arabia currently ranks 70th in mobile apps developed per capita, low for the region.  

Fourteen percent of the population has advanced ICT skills, among the highest in the region, indicating a large base of potential content developers, but 60 percent of ICT companies say recruiting talent remains a challenge.  

Meanwhile, Geidea, a leading fintech company in the region, has partnered with Magnati, a leader in the payments solutions industry, to enable merchants to provide seamless customer experiences in Magnati MetaV.  

Magnati MetaV is the first metaverse marketplace in the MENA region.  

Magnati MetaV is a virtual platform where people can get a visual and sensory experience as they shop, learn, play games, attend events, and more online, all from the comfort of their homes.  

Furthermore, the head of Saudi Excellence, Abdullah al-Meleihi, said that by 2030, the total number of users of metaverse would reach about five billion people, according to the studies' predictions.  

Meleihi added that companies and venture capital funds invested $120 billion in the Metaverse between January and May 2022, which is more than double what was invested in 2021.  

He indicated that the real estate sector is the preferred investment, real or virtual. Real estate based on the metaverse is a plot of land on a platform that can hold anything digitally, such as an art exhibition or concert hall.  

The platforms that develop these lands generate revenue by selling or renting them to luxury brands and fashion houses trying to reach consumers in the metaverse.  

Meleihi pointed out that NEOM's technology and digital company changed its brand to "Tonomous" and is working to increase investment in the metaverse and AI.  

Tonomous invested about $1 billion in 2022 to promote AI and metaverse technologies, said Meleihi, adding that it aims to devote efforts to ensure NEOM is the first community compatible with the virtual world and cognitive sciences worldwide. 

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UK Inflation Jumps to 2.3%

FILE PHOTO: A view of HSBC building in Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, August 1, 2023. REUTERS/Susannah Ireland/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of HSBC building in Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, August 1, 2023. REUTERS/Susannah Ireland/File Photo
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UK Inflation Jumps to 2.3%

FILE PHOTO: A view of HSBC building in Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, August 1, 2023. REUTERS/Susannah Ireland/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of HSBC building in Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, August 1, 2023. REUTERS/Susannah Ireland/File Photo

British inflation jumped by more than expected last month to rise back above the Bank of England's 2% target and underlying price growth gathered speed too, showing why the BoE is moving cautiously on interest rate cuts.

Consumer prices rose by an annual 2.3% in October, pushed up almost entirely by an increase in regulated domestic energy tariffs, after a 1.7% rise in September which was the first time the inflation rate had fallen below the BoE's target since 2021, Reuters reported.

Sterling strengthened by almost a third of a cent against the US dollar after the data was published before giving back most of that rise. Interest rate futures priced in a slightly slower pace of rate cuts and bond prices fell.
The BoE's most recent forecast and a Reuters poll of economists had both pointed to a weaker CPI reading of 2.2%.

James Smith, research director at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said a rise had been expected as last year's energy price falls dropped out of the annual calculation and the price cap increased in October.
"But the clean sweep of higher headline, core and services inflation has delivered a triple dose of bad news for families and policymakers alike," he said.
The increase took inflation to a six-month high and represented the biggest month-to-month rise in the annual CPI rate since inflation peaked in October 2022.
Services inflation - which the BoE views as a key measure of domestically generated price pressure - rose to 5.0% in October from 4.9% in September, the Office for National Statistics said, in line with BoE and market expectations.
But core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, picked up to 3.3% from September's 3.2%, bucking market expectations for a fall.
The BoE said this month it expected headline inflation to tick up to 2.4% and 2.5% in November and December. Price growth is likely to approach 3% in the second half of next year, it says. Some private-sector economists think inflation will rise close to 3% in early 2025.
GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY
The BoE has said the first budget of Britain's new government will probably add to inflation next year and US President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose sweeping import tariffs adds to uncertainty about the outlook.
Monica George Michail, an associate economist at Britain's National Institute of Economic and Social Research think tank, said interest rates might stay elevated for longer.
"This outlook reflects forecasted inflationary pressures stemming from the recently announced budget, in addition to heightened global uncertainty, particularly surrounding the Trump presidency," she said.
The new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to speed up Britain's economic growth but has come under fire from employers for the higher employment taxes that they will have to pay from April next year.
The BoE has said that could lead to higher prices as well as job losses.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said the government was trying to reduce the impact of the higher cost of living, including with a latest increase in the minimum wage, "but we know there is more to do."
Mel Stride, the Conservative opposition's would-be finance minister, said the government's fiscal watchdog had already been predicting higher inflation as a result of the budget.
"What is worrying about today's announcement is that inflation is running ahead of expectations and official forecasts state these figures are not expected to improve," he said.
There is also upward pressure on prices from the jobs market where many employers face a shortage of candidates.
Data last week showed British pay grew at its slowest pace in more than two years in the three months to the end of September. But BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill said wage growth was stuck at levels that were too high for the central bank.
Investors on Wednesday were pricing around 60 basis points of BoE rate reductions by the end of 2025, equivalent to between two and three cuts, down from about 65 basis points of cuts expected by investors before the inflation data.
Two-year British government bond yields, which are sensitive to interest rate speculation, rose by around 4 basis points.
Governor Andrew Bailey on Tuesday stressed the BoE's message that borrowing costs are likely to come down only gradually.
There were signs of some weaker inflation pressures in the pipeline. Prices charged by factories for their goods fell by 0.8% in the 12 months to October, the biggest drop since October 2020 during the COVID pandemic.