Transport and Furniture Lead Spending Increases in Saudi Arabia
Furniture and transport sectors in Saudi Arabia saw the highest weekly increase in point-of-sales (POS) transactions from Sept. 8 to 14, according to data from the central bank, SAMA.
Furniture spending rose to SR314.3 million ($83.74 million), a 1.6% increase, while transport expenditure hit SR767.6 million, up 1.3%. Food and beverages maintained the largest share at SR1.84 billion, followed by restaurants and cafes at SR1.80 billion, and miscellaneous goods and services at SR1.46 billion.
The top three categories accounted for SR5.1 billion of the week’s total POS value. However, overall POS value dropped by 8.6% to SR12.2 billion for the second consecutive week.
The education sector led the decline with a 43.3% drop to SR165 million, marking a month of continuous decreases after a surge in August. Telecommunications spending fell by 18.7% to SR98.2 million, and culture and recreation saw a 15.9% decline to SR246.7 million.
Spending on construction materials and electronic devices showed minimal declines, each down 0.4% to SR348.5 million and SR208.8 million, respectively.
Geographically, Riyadh accounted for 34.8% of total POS transactions at SR4.2 billion, a 6.7% decrease. Jeddah followed with a 6.8% decline to SR1.7 billion, and Dammam was third at SR620.4 million, down 6.3%.
Abha experienced the largest spending decrease at 13.1% to SR152.4 million, with Tabuk and Hail also seeing declines of 13% and 11.7% to SR230.5 million and SR189.2 million, respectively. In terms of transaction numbers, Abha recorded the highest decrease at 4.6%, while Khobar had the smallest at 2%.