Saudi consumer spending at $3.4bn as furniture sales rise

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s consumer spending settled at $3.44 billion in the week ending Sept. 19, boosted by a jump in furniture and home supplies transactions even as most other sectors pulled back, official data showed. The Kingdom’s point-of-sale transaction value totaled SR12.92 billion ($3.44 billion) during the monitored week, down 6.3 percent from the previous week, while the number of transactions fell 5.4 percent to 241.1 million, according to data from the Saudi Central Bank, known as SA