Saudi residents’ expectations high on personal finance, says survey

Some 50 percent of the Kingdom’s residents anticipate that their personal financial situation will improve in the next six months, according to the latest Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) survey.

But 76 percent of the respondents also expect life in the Kingdom to get more expensive, according to the survey conducted by Bayt.com, a job site, and YouGov, a research and consulting organization.

In the next 12 months, 46 percent of the respondents in the Kingdom do not plan to buy a vehicle, while the 41percent who do intend to purchase will look for a new vehicle. Three out of 10 (26 percent) respondents are looking to buy property within the coming year, with 38 percent of these looking for an apartment, and 61 percent of respondents preferring new properties. Consumers are looking to predominantly buy desktop or laptop computers (25 percent), furniture (22 percent), or LCD or plasma televisions (19 percent) in the coming six months.

Four out of 10 (35 percent) respondents believe that the Kingdom’s economy has improved in the last six months, while 34 percent state that it has remained the same. Half (48 percent) anticipate better things to come in the next six months. Business conditions in the Kingdom are believed to be ‘good’ (33 percent) or ‘very good’ (12 percent), with 36 percent stating that they are ‘average’, while 57 percent of respondents anticipate them to improve in a year’s time.

In terms of employment opportunities, 24 percent of the respondents state that there are plenty of jobs available across various industries, and 23 percent believe that plenty of jobs are available across few industries. Four out of 10 (39 percent) of the respondents expect an increase in jobs in the Kingdom in the next six months, while 27 percent expect the situation to remain the same.

Four out of 10 (43 percent) respondents in the Kingdom state that their companies have grown, employee-wise, in the last six months, while 27 percent say that there has been a decrease in the number of people working with them. The majority (42 percent) expect there to be growth in the number of employees in the coming six months.

This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on September 16, 2013.