Official data showed a marked improvement in consumer spending levels in Saudi Arabia, supported by increased spending on food and beverages and leisure activities.
Consumer spending in the Kingdom increased by 7.9%, equivalent to about 6.2 billion riyals, to reach 84.88 billion riyals, compared to about 78.6 billion riyals in the same period last year, according to SAMA data.
The improvement in consumer spending comes at the monthly level, through the growth of cash withdrawals through ATMs as well as banks by about 993 million Mayo riyals, 1.6%, compared to the same month in 2018.
With this improvement, POS operations witnessed a growth of about 5.22 billion riyals during that period, or 31.8% compared to the same period last year.
During last January, the growth of consumer spending on food and beverages reached about 37.5%, on an annual basis, amounting to about 2.8 billion riyals, accounting for 12.9% of the total points of sale operations during the period.
Entertainment spending increased by about 28%, as point of sales sales amounted to 927 million riyals, while spending on the telecommunications sector according to point of sale operations amounted to about 157.5 million riyals.
The clothing sector recorded a growth of 3.9%, bringing the total operations to 2.07 billion riyals, equivalent to 9.6% of the total points of sale operations during January 2019.
Point of sales sales during 2018 recorded a growth of about 15.9% to reach 232.35 billion riyals, which is the highest recorded operations of points of sale since the beginning of dealing with them, while the number of executed operations reached about 1.03 billion operations during the year.
While spending during last January fell by 1.5%, compared to December 2018, which is the third highest spending in the past year.
