“My boss sent me back to return the milk – it’s too expensive,” said the Pakistani driver for a middle-class Saudi family at the checkout counter of the Al-Othaim supermarket. He puts the two-litre pack on the counter and the cashier duly hands him back the seven riyal – less than $2 (£1, €1.4). “It happens all the time now,” the cashier sighs.

A sustained rise in prices for food staples and rents have sent many ordinary Saudis reeling. When dairy producers raised prices by 20 per cent at the beginning of this month, a spontaneous, if patchy, boycott erupted. It may not conform to the image of the oil-rich kingdom but economists say a large section of Saudi society should either be counted as middle class or lower income, and they are affected by the new phenomenon of inflation.