Saudi Economy Shows More Signs of Strain as Spending Drops

``The Saudi economy is showing deepening signs of strain under the weight of cheap oil. Saudi consumers withdrew and spent less money in February, according to central bank data released on Monday. M3, one of the broadest measures of money supply, shrank for the first time since at least 2000, when Bloomberg started tracking the data... point-of-sale transactions, an indicator of consumer confidence in the economy, dropped 9 percent from the year-earlier period to 15.2 billion riyals ($4.1 billion). And while bank credit to private businesses expanded about 10 percent, the growth likely reflects short-term borrowing, according to Monica Malik, the chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.''