Kuwait – Mubasher: Kuwait’s consumer sector maintained its durability, though some indicators are showing a slowdown in its growth rates, backed by the growth in employment, especially among Kuwaitis, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said in a report released on Tuesday.

The number of Kuwaiti civilian job applicants averaged around 4,100 a quarter over the four quarters ending in the first quarter of 2016, representing a marked increase from around 3,000 job applicants two years before, of which government sector hiring has been particularly strong; new government jobs nearly doubled to 2,700 a quarter during the same period.

Meanwhile, private employment fell by 4.3% year-on-year in June 2016, as the sector shed more than 4,000 jobs during a 12-month period.

The report also showed a y-o-y rise in credit and debit card point-of-sale in Q2-16, and total spending including ATM withdrawals continued grew by 5.4% y-o-y in the same period.

Consumer confidence has weakened noticeably in 2015, despite showing some improvements in Q2-16 as the overall ARA consumer confidence index stood at 104 in July 2016, after recording its lowest reading in nearly six years by end-2015.