Consumer spending at points of sale in Saudi Arabia during the week ending October 29 grew by 29 percent compared to the previous week ending October 23.

Consumer spending during the week ending October 29 reached approximately 10.34 billion riyals, compared to approximately 8.02 billion riyals for the previous week, a difference of 2.3 billion riyals.
According to an analysis by the reporting unit at Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper, based on data from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), spending last week was the highest in four weeks.

Regarding sector performance compared to the previous week, all sectors grew, led by the “Education” sector with 83.2 percent growth and sales of 94.7 million riyals.
It was followed by the electrical and electronic appliances sector, which recorded sales of 358.7 million riyals, a 55.4 percent increase, and then the food and beverage sector, as well as the clothing and footwear sector, both of which grew by more than 40 percent.

In terms of the sectors with the highest spending as a percentage, sales in the “Food and Beverages” sector accounted for 16.5 percent, totaling 1.7 billion riyals, followed by the “Restaurants and Cafes” sector, with sales of 1.4 billion riyals, representing 13.6 percent—the highest sales in 17 weeks.
At the city level, spending in the capital, Riyadh, grew by approximately 25.3 percent to reach 3.17 billion riyals, accounting for 30.7 percent of total point-of-sale sales, while spending in Jeddah reached approximately 1.53 billion riyals, equivalent to 14.8 percent, and approximately 548.9 million riyals in Dammam.

In addition, the number of transactions processed through point-of-sale terminals last week grew by approximately 15.3 percent to reach about 118.5 million transactions across all sectors, compared to about 102.77 million transactions the previous week, with the average transaction amounting to approximately 87.3 riyals.