RIYADH: According to central bank data, Saudi Arabia’s weekly point-of-sale spending stayed above $3 billion in the week ending July 25, despite transaction values continuing their recent downward trend. The Saudi Central Bank’s most recent statistics shows that total POS transactions decreased 5.8% week over week to SR12.26 billion ($3.27 billion). The only bright area was education, where expenditure grew 6.2 percent to SR104.7 million despite a 6.4 percent decline in transactions, indicating larger average ticket sizes rather than more visitors.
The jewelry industry saw the biggest decline, with transaction volumes down 11.1 percent and spending falling 16.2 percent to SR346.8 million, making it the weakest-performing category of the week. Spending on personal care decreased by 8.8% to SR122.7 million, laundry services by 8% to SR45.8 million, and public utilities and services by 7.5% to SR50.6 million. Certain categories showed greater resilience. For example, hotel expenditure decreased by just 1.3 percent to SR295.3 million, while trade in cars and spare parts decreased by 1.1 percent to SR491.7 million.
While garments, clothing, and accessories decreased 7.4 percent to SR964.3 million, still the third-largest named category, restaurants and cafés accounted for the second-largest share, down 4.5 percent to SR1.64 billion.
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