A GCC wide survey has highlighted a negligent attitude towards saving throughout the region, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia residents ranked the lowest in terms of savings, while Qatar lead the way in terms of having a ‘saving environment’ and savings potential.
The study, conducted by the National Bonds Corporation, found that three quarters of the 1,183 residents surveyed declared that their current savings were not as much as they had planned and that they did not save regularly. A further 93 percent said that their savings were inadequate for their future needs.
Troublingly, although 95 percent of respondents agreed that saving was important, only 26 percent of them said that they saved money regularly.
In a statement, Mohammed Qasim Al Ali, chief executive officer, National Bonds Corporation, said: “When we launched the first ever National Bonds Savings Index in September, it sent shockwaves through the UAE, as people hadn’t realised the extent of negligence there was towards saving.”
“We decided to expand our research to evaluate the saving sentiment in other (GCC) countries, yet we have found that the same problems exist but with different scales in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain,” he added.
Qatar residents showed the biggest commitment to regularly setting aside money, with 41 percent of respondents recording regular savings. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia had the lowest occurrence of regular saving, with just 23 percent responding positively.
Nearly half of all Saudi Arabians surveyed said that it was not a good time to save, almost double the UAE (27 percent) and higher than the GCC’s average of 41 percent.
Surprisingly, those respondents who expected their income to increase significantly over the next six to twelve months were not as successful at saving their money, when compared to those who saw their income as stable in the near future.
However, the impact of the financial recession appears to have taught GCC residents a hard earned lesson, with the majority of respondents (60 percent) planning to increase their savings or start saving within the next six months in an attempt to offset rising inflation and ensuring their financial stability in difficult times.
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