Education spending lifts Saudi POS transactions above $3 billion despite overall decline
Sharp 32.5% rise in school-related payments buoy total POS value amid widespread sectoral drops
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (MNTV) — Saudi Arabia’s weekly point-of-sale (POS) transactions surpassed the $3 billion mark again, driven by a significant increase in education-related spending, even as most other sectors struggled to maintain momentum.
For the week ending August 9, education spending rose by 32.5% compared to the previous week, totaling $67.1 million in POS transactions.
Notably, this was the only sector to register a positive change, even though the number of education-related transactions dipped slightly by 3.2% to 161,000.
Overall POS value stood at $3.62 billion, reflecting a 12.3% week-on-week decline.
The steepest drop occurred in pharmacies and medical supplies, sliding by 24.7% to $74.3 million. Freight and courier services followed with a 23.8% decrease to $12.9 million.
The largest share of POS value continues to belong to the food and beverage sector, which members saw a 17.8% decline to $514 million, while restaurants and cafes dipped by 7.9% to $466 million—still maintaining the second-largest share of spending.
Transportation spending fell 14.5% to $277 million, positioning it third in weekly expenditures. Together, these three categories comprised about 34.4% of total weekly POS, totaling $1.25 billion.
Hotels recorded a modest 1% decrease to $93.2 million, while medical services dropped by 6.6% to $126.2 million.
Apparel and accessories spending fell 10.7% to ~ $266 million, and recreation and culture declined 13.4% to $92.1 million.
By geography, Riyadh led POS values with $1.22 billion, though down 9.8%. Jeddah followed with $509 million and Dammam with $169 million,.
The regions with the smallest spending declines included Al-Qatif (-3%, $24.6 million) and Abha (-5.5%, $75.9 million). In terms of transaction volumes, Hail processed roughly 3.99 million deals (-12.6%), while Tabuk saw about 4.49 million (-10.5%).
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