Weekly Market Brief – 2/10/2023

Saudi Arabia Macroeconomic Developments

• Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Production Index rose 7.3 percent YoY in December 2022, primarily driven by high production in mining and quarrying, and manufacturing activities, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GAStat). The mining and quarrying sector rose by 4.1 percent in December 2022 YoY while manufacturing activities increased by 18.5 percent.

• According to a recent report by GAStat, total expenditure on research and development amounted to SAR14.5 billion ($3.9 billion), while the number of workers reached 30,220, and the number of researchers was 24,808 during 2021.

• Saudi Arabia witnessed the signing of SAR34 billion ($9 billion) worth of investment contracts on the first day of the global tech event LEAP23. These deals included Microsoft’s SAR7.9 billion ($2.1 billion) investment to develop a super-wide cloud in the Kingdom, while Oracle agreed to invest SAR5.6 billion ($1.5 billion) to establish a new cloud region in the country.