Consumer debt in GCC hits $139bn

GCC consumers owe an estimated $139bn in outstanding personal debt, according to new data from research and advisory firm Lafferty Group.

Saudi Arabia accounts for $48.5bn of the outstanding consumer credit, which includes money owed on mortgages, personal loans and credit cards, according to Lafferty data seen by Arabian Business.

The figures are based on research conducted by Lafferty’s World Cards Intelligence unit, which compiles market and competitor intelligence on credit cards and consumer finance across 65 markets worldwide.

According to the London-based firm, total outstanding consumer credit in the six GCC nations peaked in 2008, when it reached almost $151.5bn. The level of outstanding debt has risen by 80 percent between 2002 and 2010, the research shows.

“Job losses and a more relaxed credit criteria, particularly in a period of economic expansion, have led to unsustainable customer debt levels in a number of GCC countries,” Andrew Neeson, head of World Cards Intelligence and Consumer Finance Research at Lafferty, told Arabian Business.

A recent study by Asda’a Burson-Marsteller, which involved face-to-face interviews with 2,000 youngsters in nine countries across the Middle East, found that 26 percent of young Arabs had some form of personal debt, the majority of it owed on credit cards.

At 52 percent, Saudi Arabian youth were the most indebted in the Middle East. Two thirds of Saudi respondents’ debt was due to credit cards. In the UAE, 23 percent admitted to having personal debt. Bank loans accounted for 38 percent of the debts, followed by credit cards (32 percent) and student loans (15 percent).