Saudi consumer spending rose 6.8% year on year to SR425 billion in Q1 2026, covering point-of-sale transactions, cash withdrawals and e-commerce purchases. Total 2025 spending through official payment channels was SR1.57 trillion. For context in the same report: Q1 GDP grew 3%, non-oil activity 2.9%, inflation ran at 1.8%, and the IMF forecasts 1.7% growth for 2026 and 5.5% for 2027.
SR425 billion in a single quarter, growing nearly 5% faster than prices. The Saudi consumer is contributing more to this economy than the GDP indicates.
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The rating that held
S&P Global Ratings affirmed Saudi Arabia's long-term sovereign credit rating at 'A+' with a stable outlook, and expects real GDP to contract 0.9% in 2026 before growing 8.2% in 2027, followed by average growth of 3.3% in 2028 and 2029. The agency put non-oil activities including government at around 70% of GDP, up from 65% in 2018.
When a rating agency keeps an A+ rating but also predicts a 0.9% economic contraction, it shows that the analysts are focusing on the 70% of the economy that is not tied to oil and are prepared to be patient.
One rulebook for the Gulf
The Cabinet approved unified GCC rules for jointly owned properties, standardizing common-area governance, owner rights, and asset management.
The takeaway: Disputes over shared ownership are the quiet friction in every tower, an unglamorous fix that unlocks investment.
Furniture up, education down
Point-of-sale spending for the week ended 19 September broke down to show furniture and home supplies rising 11.4% to SAR 503.8 million and electronic devices up 5% to SAR 203.45 million, while education spending fell 42.8% to SAR 180.69 million and books and stationery fell 18.4% to SAR 113.31 million. Total spending was $3.44 billion, or SAR 12.92 billion, across 241.1 million transactions, with food and beverages down 9% to SAR 2.07 billion and restaurants and cafés down 6.7% to SAR 1.58 billion; economist Talat Hafiz linked the furniture rise to National Day promotional campaigns.
Education falling 42.8% while furniture rose 11.4% in the same week is a calendar effect in both directions, and it is why weekly retail data should be read by category rather than in total.
