How UAE consumers feel about economy, personal finances

Dubai: While many still believe that things aren't looking as rosy as they used to, the majority of residents in the country are now optimistic that the economy, as well as the state of their personal finances, will improve in the next few months.

Among the respondents polled by a job portal and a market research agency in the UAE from January 27 to February 10, 2016, about six in 10 (60 per cent) said they're expecting business conditions to get better in a year's time, while 48 per cent expect the economy to show some improvement. More than half (51 per cent) feel that their financial situation will improve in the next six months.

On the downside, almost half of the population are seeing their savings shrinking and more than a quarter (27 per cent) more are saying their finances have actually gone worse. Only a small number (26 per cent) of the residents think that the economy has improved in the last six months, while more (32 per cent) people believe that it has actually receded.

Most people (58 per cent) are also preparing to shell out more money on housing and other basic necessities because they expect the cost of living to continue rising over the next few months.

Analysts said that the rising cost of living in the UAE isn't helping a lot of residents save money for the future or to secure their own retirement.

"Gauging consumer opinion is a powerful tool for revealing the current attitudes and sentiments about the business and economic conditions in a specific country. Despite the positive outlook on the future, the rising cost of living is negatively impacting residents' ability to save," said Elissavet Vraka, research manager at YouGov.

Earlier, a similar study showed that 53 per cent of residents in the country believed that they were in recession. The number of people expressing recessionary sentiment, representing 4.9 million of the UAE’s nearly 10 million population, registered a ten-percentage-point increase from the previous quarter.

However, Suhail Masri, vice president of employer solutions at Bayt.com, pointed out that while the region as a whole has seen a relative dip in consumer confidence, "future expectations among respondents remain positive and bright.

The Bayt.com Middle East and North Africa Consumer Confidence Index survey, which released the latest findings, also found that 31 per cent of employed respondents believe that business conditions in the country are either “good” or “very good”, while 30 per cent believe that business conditions are “bad”.

About four in ten people (40 per cent) said their personal financial situation has not changed compared to six months ago, while a small number (25 per cent) said things are now better on the money front. About 18 per cent said their savings have increased this year, while 29 per cent said their savings have remained unchanged.

When it comes to job prospects, more than a third (35 per cent) said they believe there are still plenty of employment opportunities out there. However, while 31 per cent said their company has hired more people, 35 per cent believe that the number of employees in their organization has gone down.

The survey findings were based on the responses from 3,905 respondents from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.