Business

Optimism about individual finances is on the rise among UAE residents.

As economic activity progressively picks up in the country, people seem optimistic about the prospect of their finances.

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our familiar world upside down within a few months.

YouGovs economic recovery tracker run between 7th May and 2nd July reveals how the crisis has transformed the nations finances.

With the economy gradually reviving, UAE residents are confident about their financial situation, and a third (33%) think their finances will get better in twelve months while 23% expect them to remain in the same state.

The number who believe they will get worse stands at 25%.

The proportion of residents who said their financial condition has declined (compared to a month ago) during the crisis has decreased from 56% in May to 42% at the end of June.

On the contrary, claims of their financial situation developing or remaining unchanged has gone up from 6% to 11% and 33% to 41%, respectively.

To deal with the financial implications of the virus, a majority of residents were actively decreasing their non-essential expenses, and still seem to be doing so.

A third (34%) were relying on their savings to take care of their expenses.

This number has come down from 34% to 27% since the initial wave of the survey.

At an overall level, the proportion of residents who said the Covid situation in their country is becoming better has increased since May.

By the end of June, the majority feels the UAE has made progress in this regard.

The figures seem to adjust with the reopening of businesses in June, and we see a gradual increase throughout the month.

Confidence in the recovery of the economy also seems to be growing.

When asked about UAEs economic situation in the future, 27% of residents believe in the next twelve months the countrys economy will be developing or booming.

This is up from 17% who said this in early May.

However, 33% still believe the economy will be in a recession or depression, even though the number is down from 40% who said this in early May.

A comparable trend is evident when it comes to job security, where although a large proportion of the public is still anxious about their jobs, the number seems to be declining week-on-week.

57% admitted to feeling less confident about their jobs when we first ran the survey in May.

However, with the reopening of businesses, this figure has declined, and now (June-end) 47% said they are insecure about their jobs.

A lateral movement is visible in the level of business activity, where the number of respondents saying they have experienced a decreased level of business activity has fallen (from 67% to 48%) while those saying it has increased (from 7% to 17% saying this) has trended upward between May and June.

The fieldwork consisted of eight surveys over eight weeks in May and June among over 8000 respondents in the UAE.

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