Consumer confidence in the Middle East and North Africa region showed a positive increase, according to the latest Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) - a quarterly survey conducted by the Middle East's leading job site Bayt.com in conjunction with research specialists YouGov. CCI is a measure of consumer expectations and satisfaction of various elements of the economy including inflation, job opportunities and the cost of living. “While we are not seeing massive jumps up the index, the data shows that there are steady improvements, which reflects what is being reported and felt in economies around the region- namely that things are starting to pick up,” said Amer Zureikat, Bayt.com's regional manager. “Improvements in the index have been seen in countries in the Middle East for around six months now, so the real test as to whether consumer confidence is being sustained and improved as a result of the easing of the recession, will become evident over the next year or so.” Respondents in the Gulf countries have recorded improvement in their financial positions, the report said, noting that 29 percent in Saudi Arabia and 26 percent in Bahrain stated they were better off. Qatar recorded the highest improvement in their financial at 35 percent. In the UAE, 21 percent of respondents said they are better off than last year. The survey showed that respondents felt certain features of their economic positions were unchanged from the previous year. More than a third of respondents, 34 percent, felt that they were in the same financial position as last year, while the same number agreed that their country's economy was unchanged. However, respondents are optimistic about the future. Almost half of respondents, 48 percent, said that they believe business conditions will be better, and 40 percent said they think their country's economy will improve in a year's time. Despite being one of the only countries in the Middle East to record a consistent improvement in consumer confidence over the past year, Lebanon this time was the only country to deteriorate, moving down the index by 0.7 points. By comparison, Syria showed a significant improvement of 5.6 points. In North Africa, Egypt and Morocco topped the table in terms of improved consumer confidence, moving up 7.7 and 6.7 points respectively, contrasted with a move up the index of just 2.6 points in Algeria. As in the previous survey, the UAE was the country that improved the most, moving up the Consumer Expectations Index (CEI) by 8.6 points, closely followed by Qatar, which moved up by 8.3 points. Kuwait also followed suit, with an improvement of 7.0 points. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia showed the lowest improvements among the GCC countries, moving up 5.1 and 3.1 points respectively. In North Africa and the Levant, Egypt improved the most in terms of consumer expectations, moving up by 6.1 index points, closely followed by Syria at 5.4 points and Algeria at 4.0. The survey further showed that propensity to consume (PCI) varied from country to country. Moving highest up the PCI by 13.2 index points was the UAE, highlighting a second significant improvement after the country's jump of 12.6 index points in the previous wave. Kuwait and Qatar also showed significant improvements in propensity to consume, moving up the index 11.1 and 9.4 points respectively. Unlike the previous wave when it showed an improvement, Algeria moved down the index by 5.1 index points - the largest decrease among the surveyed countries. In this wave, Lebanon, which previously witnessed a drop, moved up the index by 3.0 as did Syria by 2.3 points. “The results show that while customers feel they are in a better financial position, they are still reluctant to part with their money for higher-end consumer items, which suggests that consumers are being cautious - perhaps until economic improvements look as though they are here to stay. In that regard, this data can serve as a useful milestone to measure the changes in consumer spending habits over time,” said Joanna Longworth, chief marketing officer, YouGov. In the Employee Confidence Index (ECI) - a general measure of how people feel about the local job market and highlights their current attitudes toward availability of jobs and salary satisfaction, the UAE showed a positive improvement in this index, moving up by 6.0 points from 8.1 index points earlier. In this category, showing the most improvements were Qatar and Syria, which moved up by 10.6 and 9.6 points, respectively. The picture around the Gulf was also positive: Kuwait and Bahrain moved up by 6.8 and 6.1 index points, while Saudi increased 2.1 points. As in the previous survey, Lebanon saw a drop in employee confidence, this time by a higher 2.0 index points, while Algeria moved down by 1.3 points. The rest of the surveyed countries all showed improvements. “In general, the employee confidence index shows that employees feel that their respective labor markets are picking up, with the exception of Lebanon and Algeria. This suggests that recessionary pressures are still being played out in those economies,” Longworth said. “This data, coupled with ongoing news reports of the global economic downturn coming to an end, suggest that conditions are already better for employees,” he added.
