RIYADH: Education spending in Saudi Arabia surged 132.1 percent to SR1.03 billion ($275.2 million) for the week ending Aug. 23, helping to keep total point-of-sale transactions above the SR13 billion mark.
The sector was responsible for the third largest share of this week’s POS value and recorded a 47.8 percent increase in the number of transactions, reaching 270,000.
Education was one of only three sectors that saw positive change across the seven days, with the total POS value seeing a weekly drop of 0.5 percent to stand at SR13.41 billion.
The relatively small fall underscores the resilience of consumer activity across the Kingdom, according to data from the Saudi Central Bank.
Another sector to post an increase was recreation and culture, up 5.6 percent in value terms, although the weekly bulletin showed the two subcategories in that metric registered contrasting fortunes.
