Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Consumer spending in Saudi Arabia increased 4 percent to SAR 110 billion ($29.32 billion) in October, from nearly SAR 105.3 billion during the same month last year, according to the Saudi Central Bank’s (SAMA) monthly bulletin.
Consumer spending includes total cash withdrawals, point-of-sale (POS) transactions and e-commerce sales through “Mada”, Argaam reported.
POS transactions rose 7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to around SAR 51.1 billion in October. Data showed that 810.4 million transactions were processed through 1.71 million POS devices during the same month.
POS transactions represent what is spent by consumers using their ATM and credit cards in shopping malls, retail stores, pharmacies, etc.
Cash withdrawals from ATMs declined by almost 3 percent YoY to roughly SAR 45.5 billion in October.
These withdrawals were processed from 16,100 ATMs through 129.2 million transactions.