Saudi POS Spending Tops $3.3bn as Education Drops

Oct 23, 2026•2 min read

Saudi point-of-sale spending held above the SAR 12 billion mark in the week ending 17 October 2026, reaching SAR 12.60 billion (USD 3.36 billion),

The total number of point-of-sale transactions during the week came to 246.42 million, a decline of 2.7% compared with the previous week. The dip in transaction volume suggests slightly lower activity across retail outlets, even as overall spending stayed strong.

Education spending halves

The sharpest change was in the education sector, where spending fell 50.9% week on week to SAR 83.46 million. However, the number of education-sector transactions did not fall by the same margin, dropping 24.2%. This gap indicates that while fewer education-related payments were made, the value of each transaction also eased noticeably during the week.

For residents and families across الرياض, جدة and other cities, the weekly point-of-sale data offers a snapshot of everyday consumer behaviour. Seasonal shifts in spending — such as the easing of back-to-school and tuition-related payments — can explain large swings in specific sectors like education from one week to the next.

It is worth noting that these figures relate solely to weekly point-of-sale spending. They do not reflect current fees, prices, service procedures, or recent changes on government platforms such as أبشر, مقيم, قوى, ناجز, نفاذ or توكلنا. Readers seeking details on any specific service should refer to the relevant official channel.

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