CAIRO & MOSCOW: The value of Saudi Arabia’s point-of-sale transactions fell in May by SR7 billion ($1.9 billion) month-on-month to SR42.4 billion, according to data from a recent monthly report issued by the Saudi central bank, also known as SAMA. This translates to a month-on-month decline of 14.3 percent, the biggest since February 2021, when the value of transactions fell 16.7 percent. Sales have fallen for the second consecutive month following a 3 percent decline in April and a growth of 31.2 percent in March. On a year-on-year basis, Saudi Arabia’s PoS increased by 5.2 percent in May 2022, the lowest annual rate since June 2021. May this year coincided with the Islamic month of Shawwal, the first post-Ramadan month and Eid holidays, however, the consumer spending posted a significant decrease in contrast to last year. Last year when only the second half of May coincided with the post-Ramadan period, and the first half fell on the last two weeks of Ramadan at that, sales increased by 2.8 percent from April. Ramadan is usually associated with lower levels of consumer spending as consumers prefer to feast within the comfort of their own homes. The PoS transactions include a variety of sectors, none of them compare with the weight of the top three sectors in terms of sales value i.e. restaurants and cafés which contributed 16 percent in May, followed by food and beverages at 15.5 percent, and miscellaneous goods and services at 10.5 percent. From the alluded to sectors above, sales in the food and beverages sector decreased in May by 8.2 percent from April, goods and services by 13.5 percent, while restaurants and cafés increased by 35.3 percent. The three worst performing sectors were clothing and footwear, furniture, and the telecommunication sector, which plummeted in May by 62.5 percent, 34.6 percent and 30 percent month-on-month, respectively. It would be pertinent to mention that clothing and footwear contributed 5.9 percent of the total value of sales in May, while furniture and telecommunications made up a lower portion of 2.5 and 0.8 percent respectively. The sectors which showed steepest increases in sales value were restaurants and cafés, miscellaneous goods and services, and hotels at a growth rate of 29.8 percent, 27.6 percent, and 16.8 percent respectively. On the other hand, clothing and footwear exhibited the sharpest decline of 44.7 percent, which comes as no shock after its poor performance in May of 2022. Similarly, jewelry and furniture also showcased massive year-on-year decreases of 39.6 and 20.3 percent respectively.