Saudi Arabia’s point-of-sale transactions rise 1.2% in October

RIYADH: The value of point-of-sale transactions in Saudi Arabia reached SR40.5 billion ($10.8 billion) in October, up 1.2 per cent, compared with the previous month, Arab News quoted the Saudi Central Bank, as saying.

Some of the sectors that helped drive the increase were restaurants and cafes, hotels, food and beverages, clothing and footwear.

For example, sales in restaurants and cafes reached their highest level since at least January 2016.

The number of transactions rose markedly to over 495 million in October from the previous month’s 469 million transactions.

Some of the point-of-sale transactions could be conducted using mobile phones and cards, otherwise referred to as near-field communication technology.

The number of mobile phone transactions continued its expansionary trend, recording a monthly increase of 1.9 per cent to hit 179 million transactions in October.

Meanwhile, the number of transactions using cards was up by 8 per cent to stand at 293 million transactions.

The value of transactions using mobile phones witnessed a 2.5 per cent drop to SR11.5 billion in October while those performed using cards recorded an increase of 3.2 per cent with the value reaching SR25.7 billion.

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