Consumers in the UAE are more optimistic than ever before, according to the recently released ‘MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence’. The survey reveals that consumer sentiment in the UAE has reached an unprecedented score of 94.7.
“Over the past few years, the UAE has firmly positioned itself as an attractive global destination where business, leisure and cosmopolitan living merge,” says Eyad Al-Kourdi, UAE country manager for MasterCard.
He adds: “UAE consumer confidence has largely been upwards and today we are delighted to announce that it has reached its all-time high.”
Respondents were asked five questions pertaining to their six-month outlook on the economy, employment prospects, the local stock market, their regular income prospects and their quality of life. The results of their responses were converted in five component indexes, which were averaged to form the score.
Compared to the previous edition of the survey, released six months ago, consumers are more optimistic about the economy (up to 96.8 from 94.6), employment (96.1 from 95.2), regular income (93.1 from 84.7) and the stock market (92.8 from 86.9). Consumers also remain very optimistic about quality of life (94.5 from 95.6), despite a slight decrease in its score.
The latest findings also indicate that, in the UAE, women (95.4) are more optimistic than men (93.9) and consumers over the age of 30 years (95.4) are more optimistic than younger respondents (92.2).
Across the Middle East, the consumer confidence level remains very optimistic with positive scores for all five indicators, despite slight declines when compared to the previous edition of the Index. Consumers are most optimistic about regular income (81.2 from 85.1), employment (79.9 from 80.8), economy (79.3 from 80.0), quality of life (76.7 from 79.9) and stock market (75.2 from 79.9). The Middle East’s aggregate score of 78.5 remains higher than that of Asia Pacific (63.3) and Africa (78.1), as was the case in the previous survey.
The market with the highest overall consumer confidence score in the Middle East is Kuwait (96.8), followed by Qatar (96.4), the UAE (94.7), Saudi Arabia (93.3), Oman (87.1), Egypt (54.1) and Lebanon (26.9).
‘The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence’ was conducted between April 2013 and May 2013 comprising 12,205 respondents aged 18 to 64 in 27 countries within Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. This is the 41st survey of consumer confidence conducted since 1993.
