In the latest Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index which tracks confidence levels, major concerns and spending habits among 26,202 internet users in 52 countries, it says that the confidence levels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a new entrant, stand at 79. The UAE is placed among the top 10 countries in the Index. This is despite the fact that consumer confidence in the UAE has taken a steep fall by 21 points compared to second half of 2008. The latest survey was conducted from March 19 to April 2, 2009. The consumer confidence Index for Egypt is 74, a fall of 1 percent from the last wave of the survey. Some 50 out of 51 countries surveyed in the last quarter have seen confidence falling to record lows. Taiwan was the only country to buck the global trend, edging up three Index points from 60 to 63, although still 14 points below the global average of 77. Consumer confidence plummeted by 29 Index points in Russia, marking the biggest fall in consumer confidence tracked by Nielsen globally. Piyush Mathur, regional managing director, Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, The Nielsen Company, said: “Global uncertainty in the economic environment coupled with jobs cuts, have brought down consumer confidence levels worldwide.” “Consumers are not sure what to expect next. Despite the fall in confidence levels, the UAE ranks in the top ten most optimistic countries and relatively speaking, we are much better off than most others.” Indonesia topped Nielsen's Global Consumer Confidence Index at 104 points, followed by Denmark (102 points) and India (99 points). The world's most pessimistic nations in the Nielsen Index are Korea (31 points), followed by Portugal and Latvia at 48 Index points. Consumers who cited job security as their top concern in life include UAE (36 percent), Hong Kong (33 percent), India (29 percent), Singapore (32 percent), Egypt (25 percent), Pakistan (24 percent), and Saudi Arabia (23 percent). Uncertainty in the labour force also remains a worry for the near future. “Though job security is the biggest concern for the UAE consumers and it has tripled in the last six months, we are still among the top ten countries where the perception of local job prospects is better compared to others. More than one out of three consumers in the UAE perceives their job prospects in the next twelve months as good or excellent,” Mathur added. “The job concerns are reflected in consumer spending habits. Consumers in the UAE, for instance, are now keeping spare cash more in saving and using it to pay off their debts. They are controlling their discretionary spends especially on clothing, out-of- home entertainment and on upgrading technology,” Mathur noted. Global consumers have been battered and bruised by a constant onslaught of bad news in the last six months. Daily announcements of job cuts and company profit warnings, bankruptcies and foreclosures, lowered GDP expectations and depressed manufacturing and production forecasts have combined to reduced consumer confidence and spending power to their lowest levels. Job security was cited as the leading concern among internet consumers in 33 of 52 countries surveyed with 22 percent globally raising it as their main concern up from nine percent in the last round of the survey in October 2008. Also, one in five (26 percent) global consumers described their job prospects in the next 12 months as bad compared with 17 percent in October 2008. Some 78 percent of Latvians said job prospects were bad for the next 12 months, along with 74 percent of Koreans, 60 percent of Japanese and 42 percent of British consumers. __
