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Where are Middle East consumers going to spend their money?

Middle East consumers
Credits: Getty

PWC’s latest report of its Global Consumer Insights Survey found that Middle East consumers are willing to spend more on essentials and decrease their spending on Luxury or designer products for the next six months. 

61 per cent of PWC’s survey participants said that they were ready to spend more on groceries, while 53 per cent said that they would spend more on fashion. 

49 per cent of the respondents said that they would spend more on consumer electronics. 

The percentage of people willing to spend more has significantly increased across these segments from PWC’s last survey. 


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Groceries saw a 14 per cent increase, fashion rose by 13 per cent, consumer electronics saw another increase of 13 per cent. 

While consumers are willing to spend more on essentials such as groceries, fashion and consumer electronics, a significant amount of respondents said that they would be cutting down their spending on Luxury items. 

31 per cent of respondents said they would decrease spending on luxury products. Similarly, 30 per cent said they would also cut down on designer clothes shopping.

Credits: PWC

Different by the country

While the overall consensus remains the same, the surveyed countries display slightly varied results. 

UAE and Egyptian consumers seem to be more bullish when it comes to expenditure than Saudi Arabian consumers. 

More than 60 per cent of UAE and Egypt consumers have said that they would increase their spending on groceries, as compared to KSA’s 50 per cent. 

The difference, albeit smaller, also applies to the countries’ expenditure on fashion, with 50 per cent of UAE and Egypt and 45 per cent of KSA consumers willing to increase their spending. 

On the other hand, when it comes to luxury and designer brands, fewer UAE consumers were willing to decrease their spending compared to KSA and Egypt. 

30 per cent of KSA and Egypt consumers said that they would decrease their spending on luxury and designer products and clothes. 

But when it came to UAE consumers, only approximately 20 per cent of the respondents said that they would cut down on their expenditure for luxury items.  

The Middle East findings from PWC’s survey were compiled from a sample of 642 consumers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

Find the link to the complete here.