A Consumer Confidence report for Q4 2013 was released by Nielsen recently. The study shows that consumers in the United Arab Emirates are among the most optimistic in the world.
The report has found that consumer confidence in the Middle East and Africa has dropped by 2% during the last quarter of 2013. According to Nielsen, most confident were the “oil-rich” countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In comparison, Egypt registered a fall of 7 points after its impressive gain during Q3 2013.
The most optimistic counties are the Asia-Pacific ones. Six out of the ten are situated namely in that region. Among them is the ranking’s leader – Indonesia. It is followed by three other Asia-Pacific countries – India (2), the Philippines (3) and China (4). The only exceptions here are South Korea and Taiwan, which have the 6th and the 18th least confident consumes in the world.
Countries with the most confident consumers:
- Indonesia
- India
- Philippines
- China
- United Arab Emirates
- Brazil
- Thailand
- Hong Kong
- Denmark
- Peru
Most pessimistic are European countries. They make up 17 of the 20 least confident entries in the ranking. The consumers in the Middle East and Latin America, on the other hand, do not follow similar patterns. As a result, the two regions have representatives in every part of the list.
Still, the United Arab Emirates has showed the strongest consumer confidence in the Middle East and one of the strongest in the world. The country ranks 5th on the global ranking, although consumer optimism witnessed a decline of 1 point.
Countries with the least confident consumers:
- Portugal
- Croatia
- Slovenia
- Italy
- Greece
- South Korea
- Hungary
- France
- Serbia
- Spain
Global consumer confidence maintained a stable index of 94 for three quarters in a row. Moreover, Q4 2013 was even higher than Q1 2013. This means that the majority of consumers worldwide have enjoyed better job prospects and had better personal finances. In addition, they were more willing to spend compared to previous years.
Nevertheless, from Nielsen explain that recovery is moving at a very slow pace. The report states that many consumers continue to be cautions since their budget can barely cover only their essential expenses. Even though consumer optimism is predicted to grow in 2014, the improvement will most likely remain sluggish. That is mainly due to the rising cost of living trend witnessed all over the world.
