RIYADH: The value of point of sales transactions in Saudi Arabia for February fell 10.8 percent month-on-month to SR38.9 billion ($10.4 billion), the Saudi central bank, SAMA, reported. This is the biggest monthly drop since February 2021 when sales plunged 16.7 percent. The number of transactions also fell markedly by 7.4 percent to over 496 million in February from the previous month"s 535.7 million transactions. Looking at the structure of transactions, the number of purchases using bank cards was down by 8.7 percent and stood at 276.6 million transactions. Some of the points of sale transactions could be from mobile phones and cards, otherwise referred to as near field communication technology. The number of mobile phone transactions also fell by 5.0 percent to 201.2 million in February after it hit 211.8 million in January 2022, the highest on record. Notably, the February drop is the first decline on record for this transaction category. The number of e-commerce transactions using Mada cards — a local debit card — witnessed a decrease of 4.9 percent to 38.9 million in February from 40.9 million in the previous month, the first decline since June 2021.