Jobs, income, economy: 3 things that excite UAE residents

Consumer sentiment in the UAE remains steady, and residents are more optimistic about their job prospects compared to the previous year, according to MasterCard’s latest Consumer Confidence Index released on Monday.

Consumers in the UAE are ‘optimistic’ about all five indicators measured in the index, it said. The index is based on a survey conducted between July 2014 and August 2014.

When compared to the previous edition of the survey released last year, consumers are more optimistic about employment (97.3 as against 96.1), regular income (94.7 vs 93.1) and economy (96.8 vs 96.2).

However, in 2014, consumers in the UAE were found to be less optimistic about the stock market (79 vs. 92.8) and quality of life (76.3 vs. 94.5) indicators.

The latest consumer confidence findings for UAE also indicate that male respondents are slightly more optimistic than female respondents about the coming months (89.9 vs 87.6), and that consumers over the age of 45 years (90.9) are more optimistic than younger respondents (87.3).

“The UAE is now a global hub for business, leisure and tourism, and post winning the Expo 2020 bid, the country is also being recognised as a knowledge-based economy,” said Eyad Al Kourdi, UAE Country Manager, MasterCard.

“The latest consumer confidence results reflect the continued optimism of UAE consumers and this is an encouraging trend for businesses across all sectors,” he added.

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 released six months ago.

Consumers are most optimistic about Regular Income (86.2 vs. 83.9) and Employment (83.6 vs. 80.9), whereas results indicate a decline in consumer’s confidence about Quality of Life (74 vs. 78.1) and the Stock Market (75.6 vs. 78.1) their sentiment in relation to the Economy has remained the same, at 80.3.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.

In the Middle East, Qatar (97.2) overtakes Saudi Arabia (96.3) as the market leader with the highest level of consumer confidence, followed by Oman (94.6), Kuwait (92.6), UAE (88.7), Egypt (78.6) and Lebanon (12.4).

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.