UBS study: 51% of UAE investors expect economy recovery in H1 2021

Half of UAE investors (51 per cent) believe normal economic activity will resume before July 2021, according to a UBS survey. The rest (49 per cent) don’t expect normality to return until the second half of the year.

Asked about their top concerns, UAE investors singled out Covid-19 (63 per cent), followed by climate change (56 per cent) and fear of a market downturn (55 per cent).

Overall, UAE investors feel confident about their region’s economic perspectives, with 85 percent expressing optimism for the current year.

Globally, a majority of survey respondents (60 per cent) have a positive economic outlook over the next 12 months, compared with 55 per cent three months prior. Sixty-three percent of investors don’t believe life will return to normal in the next six months. Of those respondents, only 48 per cent are optimistic about the economy. Among the 37 per cent of investors who expect life to return to normal in the next six months, economic optimism is much higher at 80 per cent.

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Among global business owners, 72 per cent are confident in their own business over the next 12 months, up from 69 per cent in the third quarter, due to business momentum (45 per cent), vaccine progress (43 per cent) and favorable monetary policy (40 per cent).

Nearly a third of business owners (32 per cent) plan to hire workers, up from 30 per cent three months prior. However, the proportion of business owners who plan to downsize increased as well, up 2 percentage points.