Consumer confidence remains high in Kingdom

MasterCard has revealed the results of the latest MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence, which indicates that consumer sentiment in Saudi Arabia is very high at 93.3.
Consumers in the Kingdom are optimistic about all five indicators measured in the index, despite a slight decrease in score as compared to the previous edition of the survey released six months ago. When compared to the previous edition, consumers are slightly less optimistic about the economy (97.1 vs. 97.3), employment (96.2 vs. 97.6), regular income (95.7 vs. 98.8), stock market (89.6 vs. 93.5) and quality of life (87.9 vs. 88.9).
The latest findings indicate that male respondents are more optimistic than female respondents about the coming months (95.0 vs. 89.4), and that consumers under the age of 30 years (97.2) are more optimistic than older respondents (92.0).
“Consumer confidence has remained consistently high in Saudi Arabia for a number of years, and once again respondents have indicated that they are extremely optimistic in their outlook for the coming months,” said Khalid Hariry, market manager, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen, MasterCard. “Respondents are most positive about the prospects for the economy and employment, reflecting their confidence in the development and opportunities of this ever-developing market.”
Across the Middle East, the consumer confidence level remains very optimistic with positive scores for all five indicators, despite slight declines when compared to the previous edition of the Index released six months ago. Consumers are most optimistic about regular income (81.2 vs. 85.1), employment (79.9 vs. 80.8), economy (79.3 vs. 80.0), quality of life (76.7 vs. 79.9) and stock market (75.2 vs. 79.9). The Middle East’s aggregate score of 78.5 remains higher than that of Asia/Pacific (63.3) and Africa (78.1), as was the case in the previous survey.
In the Middle East, Kuwait (96.8) overtakes Qatar (96.4) as the market with the highest level of consumer confidence, followed by the UAE (94.7), Saudi Arabia (93.3), Oman (87.1), Egypt (54.1) and Lebanon (26.9).
The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence is based on a survey conducted between April 2013 and May 2013 on 12,205 respondents aged 18 -64 in 27 countries within Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. This is the 41st survey of Consumer Confidence conducted since 1993.