UAE consumer confidence among Top 5; Indians lead in optimism

The UAE is among the Top 5 countries in the world in terms of consumer confidence, according to the latest Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions.

The country reported the highest consumer confidence in the region. It edged up three index points from the second quarter to a score of 112 and had the fifth-highest scores of the 60 countries measured.

This is on the back of a stronger economy and improved job market in the country in 2014 and the belief that prospects look even brighter in the coming year.

GLOBAL CONSUMER CONFIDENCE SURVEY
 

With a score of 126, India leads the world in terms consumer confidence, followed by Indonesia (125 points), Philippines (115), and Thailand (113). Among the Top 10 are China (111), the US (108), Hong Kong (107), Saudi Arabia (105) and Denmark (104).

The survey findings reveal that almost three-quarter of UAE respondents (73 per cent) believe the job market would be good or excellent in the next 12 months, a 5 percentage-point increase from the second quarter.

While perceptions of personal finances have become more positive, UAE consumers’ overall sentiment about personal finances has not improved as significantly as their sentiment about their employment opportunities.

Sixty-four per cent of UAE respondents rated their personal finances as good or excellent for the upcoming year, compared to 60 per cent in the previous quarter.

This is slightly more than what was released by a consumer confidence survey by online job portal Bayt.com a couple of months back.

The August Bayt survey showed that those who polled from the UAE, only 24 per cent believed that their or their family’s current financial position was better compared to six months ago while the majority (45 per cent) said it was just the same over the given period of time and 24 per cent said it was worse.

However, the Bayt survey also shows that UAE residents are hopeful about the near future. When asked about how they anticipate their personal situation to be in the coming months, just half (50 per cent) said they expected it to improve while 13 per cent expect it to get worse.

When compared the monetary happiness quotient is higher in the Nielsen index. The new findings also show that quarter-on-quarter discretionary spending intentions increased 6 percentage points in the third quarter for plans to save (52 per cent), followed by 5 percentage-points gains for investing in stock/mutual funds (15 per cent) and for saving for retirement (14 per cent).

One-fourth of those polled intend paying off debts/credit cards/loans (25 per cent) which represents an increase of 1 percentage point vs Q2 2014. Thirteen percent of UAE respondents said they had no spare cash, a decline of 4 percentage points from the second quarter, shows Nielsen data.

The biggest worry on the minds of UAE residents is job security despite a marked improved in the market. Of those polled, 38 per cent rated this was their biggest or second biggest concern for the next six months, an increase of 7 percentage points from the previous quarter, followed by concerns about parent’s welfare and happiness which rose 1 percentage point to 20 per cent.

The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions measures perceptions of local job prospects, personal finances and immediate spending intentions among more than 30,000 respondents with Internet access in 60 countries.

Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism, respectively. The latest results reflect an outlook of cautious optimism, as every region’s consumer confidence score improved compared to the previous quarter.
 

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