Optimism about personal finances is on the rise among UAE residents

As economic activity gradually picks up in the country, residents seem positive about the future of their finances

The appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic has turned our familiar world upside down within a span of few months. YouGov’s economic recovery tracker run between 7th May and 2nd July reveals how the crisis has affected the nation’s finances.

With the economy gradually reopening, UAE residents are hopeful about their personal monetary situation and a third (33%) think their finances will get better in twelve months’ time while 23% expect them to remain in the same state. The number who think they will get worse stands at 25%.

The proportion of residents who said their financial condition has deteriorated (compared to a month ago) during the crisis has reduced from 56% in May to 42% at the end of June. On the contrary, claims of their monetary situation improving or remaining unchanged has gone up from 6% to 11% and 33% to 41%, respectively.

In order to deal with the financial implications of the virus, a majority of residents were actively reducing 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 but 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, and by the end of June, the majority feels UAE has made progress in this regard. The figures seem to align 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 UAE’s economic situation in the future, 27% residents believe in the next twelve months the country’s economy will be growing 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 similar trend is evident when it comes to job security where although a large proportion of public are still insecure about their jobs, the number seems to be declining week-on-week. 57% admitted to feeling less secure about their jobs when we first ran the survey in May. However, with the reopening of businesses, this figure has decreased and now (June-end) 47% said they are insecure about their jobs. A parallel movement is clear in the level of business activity, where the number of respondents saying they have experienced decreased level of business activity has fallen down (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 the course of 8 weeks in May and June among over 8000 respondents in the UAE.