Saudi spending drops as shoppers wait to bag Ramadan bargains

RIYADH: Spending in Saudi Arabia fell ahead of Ramadan as shoppers waited to bag bargains during the holy month.
Supermarkets traditionally roll out discounts during Ramadan with some of the best price cuts to be had on basic items.
On Wednesday Carrefour cut the price of a 10 kilo bag of rice by SR25. City Flower Department Stores were offering a SR50 free purchase for every SR250 spent on garments and footwear. Lulu discounted the price of an iPhone 12 Pro Max to SR5199 from 5699.
Central bank data reflects a lull in consumer spending last week across the Kingdom.
Earlier Al Eqtisadiah reported that spending in the Kingdom fell 11.7 percent during the week ending April 10.
The food and beverage sector accounted for the lion’s share or total sales at 17.4 percent of total sales, amounting to SR1.74 billion. But that still represented a 9.6 percent drop from the previous week.
The education sector recorded a 22.9 percent decline, as sales amounted to about SR100.3 million.
The telecommunications sector also recorded a 16.5 percent decline.
Point of sale (POS) transactions decreased during the past week by about 5.4 per cent, to reach about 96.1 million operations across all sectors compared to about 101.6 million operations for the previous week.