In the seven days preceding the holy month of Ramadan, 22 million financial transactions worth SR13.6 billion ($3.6 billion) were carried out, including ATM withdrawals and SR6.8 billion ($1.8 billion) through the SPAN system. The remaining amounts were directly withdrawn from bank accounts. According to data available, 2.2 million transactions were carried out through the SPAN system on August 26, pay day for most of the public sector, for SR1.5 billion ($400 million) while a similar figure was expected to have been registered through the bank accounts' system, representing a marked increase of more than 200 percent over the same day of the previous year when a total of SR489.8 million ($130.6 million) were withdrawn through one million transactions, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat said. According to official data released by the Central Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Economy and Planning for the period ending in 2006, SR1.1 billion were withdrawn through 1.8 million ATM transactions, including SR200.1 million spent at sales outlets and SR941.9 million withdrawn from ATMs, against SR546.3 million and 1.1 million transactions for the same period last year. On August 28, withdrawal moved upwards at 1.6 million transactions worth SR 937.4 million. Cash withdrawal on August 29 was to the tune of SR 661.8 million. A total of SR957.2 million were withdrawn through 1.6 million transactions on August 30, while the following day SR946.6 million were withdrawn through 1.7 million transactions. __
