UAE consumers are the eighth most optimistic in the world, according to the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index for the third quarter of 2009.
The results, revealed on Monday, showed that the UAE’s index ranking had surged during the period from a score of 89 to 103, putting it eighth on the global list of 54 countries.
Job security remained the number one concern for UAE consumers although the number of people who feared losing their jobs fell from 36 percent in April to 24 percent in September, the index showed.
Piyush Mathur, Nielsen’s regional managing director MENA, said that while confidence levels in the UAE were rising, consumers were changing their spending habits as a result of the credit crunch.
They showed “more discretion”, especially when buying new clothes, and they had cut down on their grocery shopping, he added.
The global average also rose 9 points since April.
In the latest round of the survey, Vietnam posted the largest consumer confidence increase in the second half of 2009 compared to first half, up 24 points from 85 to 109 index points, followed by Hong Kong (+23 pointsand Chile (+22 points).
India, Indonesia and Norway continued to top the global rankings for the most confident nations, while the most pessimistic nations were Latvia and Japan.
Consumer confidence rose in 45 out of the 52 countries compared to six months ago.
The Nielsen index was based on the views of more than 30,000 internet users across 54 countries.
