Saudi Consumers Spent SAR 11.68 Billion in First Week of Ramadan

Ramadan is a season of faith, community – and shopping? With enormous iftars to cook, gifts to buy and events to join, Ramadan is known to stimulate economies, and this year is no exception.

According to a study titled ‘2024 Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr Insights’ by Toluna and Metrixlab, 64% of Saudi consumers view Ramadan as a good time to make new purchases, a rise from the 55% of consumers who thought so in 2023. Financial data compiled by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) shows that in the first week of Ramadan, Saudi consumers have spent more than SAR 11.68 billion in point-of-sale purchases on food, electronic devices, jewellery purchases, hotels, gas and more.

Approximately SAR 3.9 billion worth of sales occurred in Riyadh. Jeddah was the city with the second-biggest spenders, with SAR 1.6 billion being spent in point-of-sale transactions. In the holy cities, SAR 632 million worth of sales occurred in Makkah, while SAR 460 million was spent in Madinah. The total number of point-of-sale transactions throughout the Kingdom in the first week of the Holy Month is more than 168 million.