"It's a good move. If increasing consumer prices are checked, it will be a great help to all residents in the Kingdom, including Saudi nationals who may have big families to support," Mohamed Shafi, a Saudi cashier at a big supermarket chain, told Arab News on Monday.

The NSHR also plans to submit a new draft strategy of consumer protection to the Royal Court.

Expatriates also have expressed happiness over the NSHR's request.

"It would be a great relief indeed if the unabated increases in basic goods and commodities could be stopped. This would enable expatriate families if and when they go home for good," Mustafa Mohamed Ali, a 26-year-old Syrian employee of a telecommunications company, told Arab News.

Erik P. Asi, a Filipino electrical engineer said that if the price increases could be stopped, he will not only be able to send their two children to school but also help his family  back home.

"My mother has been undergoing medical treatment and I need to meet her medical expenses. My wife is also helping her family in Lopez, Quezon," he said.

Lebanese Ghazi Ahmad Joma, a 33-year-old who works at the National Aluminum Factory in Riyadh, said that he was hoping the prices of commodities could be checked so that his family could save for the future. "When you go out, you cannot avoid spending once the kids ask us to buy something for them," he said.

They also expressed hope that the increase in house rent would be minimized, if not frozen for the time being.

In Jeddah, Lowell Plameras, the Filipino head of The Media Brokers, said that house rent has been skyrocketing. "I used to pay SR12,000 yearly for my flat in the Sharafiah district. Now I am paying SR18,000," he said.

He said that he could not move because he liked the location aside from the fact that rent was rising everywhere.