UAE consumer confidence on the rise

MasterCard has revealed the results of the latest MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence, which indicates that Consumer Confidence in the UAE is steadily rising, with a score of 91.4  as compared to 86.0 in the previous edition of the Index released 6 months ago. Consumers in the UAE are ‘extremely optimistic’ in their overall consumer confidence score, and are positive about all five indicators measured in the Index. When compared to the previous edition of the survey, consumers are more optimistic about Quality of Life (95.6 vs. 88.6), Employment (95.2 vs. 88.9), Economy (94.6 vs. 89.1) and the Stock Market (86.9 vs. 77.0). Consumers also remain very optimistic about Regular Income (84.7 vs. 86.2), despite a slight decrease in its score when compared to 6 months ago. The latest findings indicate that female respondents and male respondents are equally positive about the coming months (91.4), but that consumers under the age of 30 years (94.6) are more optimistic than older respondents (90.4). “Consumer confidence levels in the UAE have been steadily increasing in our most recent indices, reflecting a positive outlook for key sectors and confidence in the UAE’s plans and vision for the coming years,” said Eyad Al-Kourdi, UAE country manager, MasterCard. Across the Middle East, the consumer confidence level remains very optimistic at an average score of 81.1, with encouraging scores for all five indicators. When compared to the previous edition of the Index released 6 months ago, consumers are most optimistic about Regular Income (85.1 vs. 89.8), Employment (80.8 vs. 85.5), Economy (80.0 vs. 84.4), Stock Market (79.9 vs. 74.9) and Quality of Life (79.9 vs. 82.9). In the Middle East, consumer confidence remains the highest in Qatar, with a score of 96.5. Qatar is followed by Kuwait (95.8), Oman (95.6), Saudi Arabia (95.2) the UAE (91.4), Egypt (66.6) and Lebanon (26.8). The Middle East’s aggregate score of 81.1 remains higher than that of Asia/Pacific (59.7) and Africa (69.6), as was the case in the previous survey.   The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence (“Index”) is based on a survey conducted between 7 November to 23 December 2012 on 11,339 respondents aged 18 – 64 in 25 countries within Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Albawaba Business