DUBAI: Private sector salaries in the Gulf Arab region are seen increasing at an average of 11.4 percent in 2009, the same pace as in 2008, despite a global economic slowdown, a report by a recruitment firm showed yesterday.
The study by GulfTalent.com said that pay hikes in the world’s top oil exporting region may start to ease in the next few months depending on the strength of the US dollar and the impact of the Western market’s downturn on developing economies. Most human resource managers out of the 29,000 professionals surveyed in the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council believed salary increases in 2009 would be similar to 2008.
“This is consistent with the current fundamentals of the economy — with the oil price still at historically high levels, inflation rampant across the region...despite the global slowdown,” the report said.
Inflation has soared across the Gulf Arab region as it reaps windfall revenues from an almost four-fold rise in oil prices since 2002. Over the last year, inflation and talent shortages drove salaries in the United Arab Emirates, home to the financial hub of Dubai and the second-largest Arab economy, to rise 13.6 percent, the report said.
Inflation in the UAE rose 11.1 percent to a 20-year high in 2007, the latest official figures showed.
The report predicted that professionals based in the US and Europe would stream into the Gulf Arab region on a scale not seen since the post-9/11 influx due to economic gloom in the Western markets.
