Saudi Arabia Retail Market Overview \u2013 Summer 2026<\/a> said the increase covered point-of-sale transactions, cash withdrawals and e-commerce purchases, building on the record SR1.57 trillion spent through official payment channels in 2025, according to a statement.<\/p>\n\n\tKnight Frank said the Kingdom\u2019s retail and food and beverage sectors continued to benefit from a supportive economic backdrop, with Saudi Arabia\u2019s economy expanding 3 percent in the first quarter of 2026, driven by 2.9 percent growth in non-oil activities.<\/p>\n
\n\tInflation remained contained at 1.8 percent, helping sustain consumer confidence despite heightened regional geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n
\n\tSpending resilient<\/p>\n
\n\tFaisal Durrani, partner and head of research for MENA at Knight Frank, said:\u00a0\u201cConsumer spending has remained resilient despite regional uncertainty, supported by sustained non-oil economic growth, stable inflation and rising household incomes.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese factors continue to underpin retailer confidence and reinforce the Kingdom\u2019s position as one of the region\u2019s most attractive retail investment markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDurrani explained that\u00a0entertainment, wellness and community uses are becoming critical success factor determinants.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cConsumers increasingly expect destinations to offer a broader \u2018day-out\u2019 experience, combining shopping and dining with family entertainment, \u2018edu-tainment\u2019, fitness, events and social activities,\u201d the Knight Frank partner said, adding:\u00a0\u201cThis is encouraging developers to rethink the role of retail space and to place greater emphasis on destination curation, placemaking and how complementary uses work together to enhance the overall customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tVision 2030 supports retail growth<\/p>\n
\n\tSaudi Arabia’s retail sector is also benefiting from the broader Vision 2030 transformation, which aims to attract 150 million annual visitors by 2030 and increase tourism’s contribution to gross domestic product to 10 percent, supporting demand across retail, hospitality and entertainment.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe latest figures also align with the International Monetary Fund\u2019s\u00a0forecast that the\u00a0Kingdom\u2019s\u00a0economy will expand 1.7 percent in 2026<\/a>, before accelerating to\u00a05.5 percent growth in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIYADH: Saudi Arabia\u2019s consumer spending rose 6.8 percent year on year to SR425 billion ($113.3 billion) in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-560936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}