Dubai, United Arab Emirates.-Thursday, January 25th 2018 [ AETOS Wire ]
Confidence in the Middle East is stable, even with the adoption of VAT in the GCC, according to the latest edition of the Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) released today.
The quarterly survey of global CFOs and finance professionals, conducted by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants), found a challenging outlook for the region, but with opportunities for growth too.
Hanadi Khalife, Director, MEA & India Operations of IMA said, “There is a challenging and mixed outlook for the region, caused by the drop in oil revenues, fiscal austerity, higher inflation rates and continued political uncertainty. While these factors are likely to continue to weigh on the region’s prospects in 2018,governments in the UAE and Saudi have started taking measures to ease austerity and boost private sector activity in an effort to improve the business confidence outlook.”
Lindsay Degouve de Nuncques, Head of ACCA Middle East adds “At the moment confidence is lower in the UAE than usual, whilst confidence in Saudi Arabia is in negative territory. Both countries have adopted VAT this month, which may be causing some slight concerns around increased consumer costs this quarter, as reported. Once the initial implementation period has waved, we should see consumer confidence return and therefore a rise in sentiment.”
Positively, there has been an improvement in government spending across UAE, which reflects its strong fiscal position compared with the rest of the region and the likelihood of its fiscal austerity easing slightly in 2018, along with an increasing non-oil dependent sector” continues Lindsay.
Global economic confidence remained relatively high at the end of 2017 despite a slight dip in confidence from the previous quarter. Narayanan Vaidyanathan, head of business insights at ACCA says,
‘Despite a small dip, the relatively high level of confidence reflects a stronger economic outlook in the US and India. The overall outlook for 2018 is a promising one in terms of global economic growth and confidence. Some of the signs of a global economic recovery in 2017 look set to continue, with improvements for developed and emerging markets.’
Fieldwork for the Q4 2017 GECS took place between 24 November and 11 December 2017 and attracted 4,011 responses from ACCA and IMA members around the world, including more than 250 CFOs.
You can read the report here.
About ACCA
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants, offering business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.
ACCA supports its 200,000 members and 486,000 students in 180 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. ACCA works through a network of 101 offices and centres and more than 7,200 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through its public interest remit, ACCA promotes appropriate regulation of accounting and conducts relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.
ACCA is currently introducing major innovations to its flagship qualification to ensure its members and future members continue to be the most valued, up to date and sought-after accountancy professionals globally.
Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. More information is here: www.accaglobal.com
About IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants)
IMA®, named 2017 Professional Body of the Year by The Accountant/International Accounting Bulletin, is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. Globally, IMA supports the profession through research, the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) program, continuing education, networking and advocacy of the highest ethical business practices. IMA has a global network of more than 90,000 members in 140 countries and 300 professional and student chapters Headquartered in Montvale, N.J., USA, IMA provides localized services through its four global regions: The Americas, Asia/Pacific, Europe and Middle East/India. For more information about IMA, please visit https://imamiddleeast.org/.
Contacts
Monique McKenzie
Tel: 02070595030
Mobile: 07725613447
E: Monique.McKenzie@accaglobal.com
Twitter: @ACCANews
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