‎Consumer spending via POS transactions rises 8% to SAR 101.5 bln in January: SAMA

‎Consumer spending via POS transactions rises 8% to SAR 101.5 bln in January: SAMA

Consumer spending in Saudi Arabia rose by 8% to nearly SAR 101.51 billion in January, from SAR 93.62 billion during the same period last year, according to the Saudi Central Bank's (SAMA) monthly bulletin.

Consumer spending includes total cash withdrawals, point-of-sale (POS) sales and e-commerce sales through “Mada” as the following table shows:

POS transactions rose by 17% to SAR 43.56 billion in January from SAR 37.27 billion in the same month last year.

Data showed that a total of 535.7 million transactions were processed through 1.05 million POS devices in the month.

POS transactions represent what is spent by consumers using their ATM cards and credit cards in shopping malls, retail stores, pharmacies, etc.

The following table shows the development of POS transactions:

Cash withdrawals declined by 4% to SAR 49.7 billion in January, from SAR 51.97 billion last year.

The withdrawals were processed through 16,600 ATMs and through 125.9 million transactions.