DOHA: Consumer confidence in Qatar is the highest among the Middle Eastern markets, according to the latest MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence.
Consumers in Qatar are ‘extremely optimistic’ in their overall consumer confidence score, and are positive about all five indicators measured in the Index.
In the Middle East, consumer confidence remains the highest in Qatar, with a score of 96.5. Qatar is followed by Kuwait (95.8), Oman (95.6), Saudi Arabia (95.2) the UAE (91.4), Egypt (66.6) and Lebanon (26.8).
The Middle East’s aggregate score of 81.1 remains higher than that of Asia/Pacific (59.7) and Africa (69.6), as was the case in the previous survey.
When compared to the previous edition of the index released six months ago, consumers are more optimistic about regular income (99.3 Vs 98.4), Employment (98.1 Vs 97.8) and the stock market (92 Vs 91.1). Consumers also remain very optimistic about the economy (97.0 Vs 98.7) and Quality of Life (96.2 Vs 96.9), despite a slight decrease in scores when compared to six months ago.
The latest findings indicate that male respondents in Qatar are slightly more optimistic about the coming six months than female respondents (96.9 Vs 96.1), and that consumers under the age of 30 years (97.6) are more optimistic than older respondents (96.1).
The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence is based on a survey conducted between 7 November 7 to December 23, 2012 on 11,339 respondents aged 18 to 64 in 25 countries in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
The Peninsula
