Dubai: As the global crisis is considered to have entered its final leg and the recovery is gaining traction, UAE consumers indicate they are more optimistic about the local economy, job prospects and the cost of living.
A survey conducted by the Bayt.com employment website, along with research specialist YouGov Siraj, found that optimism index in the UAE had edged up by 2.2 points since last September.
The same optimism was observed in Egypt and Morocco, where confidence levels rose by 2.1 and 0.4 points respectively.
Bahrain and Qatar saw higher increases of 10.4 and 9.4 points respectively.
However, a gloomy outlook was noted in Lebanon, where the index dropped significantly — by 23.1 points.
"Lebanon has had a particularly unstable year with extreme lows and highs recorded each quarter," a Bayt.com spokesman said.
Confidence
The Consumer Confidence Index seeks to measure people's expectations and satisfaction of various elements of the economy, including inflation, job opportunities and the cost of living.
Data for the study was collated online between November 15 and December 16 from more than 10,000 respondents in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Pakistan, a company spokesman said.
Steve Gregory, managing partner at Holborn Assets, agreed with the findings, citing that the confidence index was a reliable gauge of consumer sentiment.
"I think it is the best one available and is a good indicator of the feelings of people about (the economy, job prospects and cost of living)," he said.
"I would have expected a higher increase actually, especially now that the Wage Protection Scheme and the new labour contract changes have been put in place.
"People should now feel more confident about their future and their ability to improve their career and be mobile in the workforce," he added.
However Gregory said not everyone in the UAE was in good spirits because some sectors were still hurting from the global recession.
"I expect that Dubai's commitment to property development in the past, and the deflating of the balloon, is still impacting on many industries," he said.
"While the UAE is benefiting from higher oil prices, some industries are still languishing, particularly marketing and advertising, and other industries which boomed when property did," he said.
The Nielsen Company, which also conducts consumer confidence surveys, yesterday confirmed there had been a gradual improvement in UAE consumer sentiment.
Job security
Citing its Q3 Global Consumer Confidence Index, Nielsen noted that economy and job security concerns had been declining gradually since early 2009, which indicated a degree of diminishing negativity.
"There is a broad realisation that the road to full economic recovery is going to take longer than expected and that consumers need to remain cautious about their spending habits and job security," Himanshu Vashishtha, Nielsen's managing director for Middle East and Pakistan, told Gulf News.
Sevil Ermin, Nielsen's managing director for the UAE said: "In the UAE, consumers are still focused on repairing their household balance sheets with 50 per cent allotting any remaining income to savings and paying off debt (35 per cent), while focusing on reducing purchases of new clothes and entertainment expenses".
"Consumers are taking a step forward and are now ready to put their money in investments and look at retirement schemes," Ermin said.
The Bayt.com website asked respondents about their personal financial circumstances.
