Mubasher TV
Contact Us Advertising   العربية

Business Confidence in Middle East hits record high in Q1, UAE in focus - Report

Business Confidence in Middle East hits record high in Q1, UAE in focus - Report
(Photo credit: Arabianeye-Reuters)

Dubai – Mubasher: Business confidence in the Middle East region has "rebounded strongly" in the first quarter of 2017, the latest edition of the Global Economic Conditions Survey showed.

Economic sentiment has been "spearheaded by an increasingly confident outlook in North America," the quarterly survey of global CFOs and finance professionals showed, noting that this was reflected across leading developed and emerging markets.

This has been the fastest growth rate seen in global trade since 2015, it added.

"The confidence increase in the Middle East is due in part to the recent recovery in oil prices, and the region is likely to benefit from the resultant easing of fiscal austerity," the report is conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACC) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) indicated.

It added that the UAE, in particular, continued outperforming other countries in the Middle East, with the survey highlighting a rise in confidence, government spending and employment. 

"However, there are still challenges on the horizon, with oil production likely to fall in 2017 as other countries look to reduce oil output," the report added.

“The rise in confidence, combined with strong economic hard data, offers genuinely encouraging signs for the global economy: with an increasingly optimistic mood in the US and a stimulus-led recovery in China driving prospects for world trade," commented Lindsay Degouve de Nuncques, head of ACCA Middle East.

"The Middle East has seen an encouraging up-turn in our confidence levels and in government spending. The UAE in particular has performed well due to our sizeable non-oil sector and strong fiscal position, which allows us greater protection from falling oil prices," she added.

It is likely, however, that borrowing costs will increase across the Middle East in coming months owing to the expected rises in US interest rates, as many of the exchange rates across the region are tied to the US dollar, Degouve de Nuncques stated.  

"Hopefully we can maintain business confidence while also efficiently navigating these challenges,” she added.