Business Confidence Very High Among Middle Eastern Treasurers

78% of treasurers in the Middle East feel more confident about their business' prospects in the next year.

DUBAI - Nearly eight in every ten senior treasury and finance professionals in Dubai (78%) are feeling more positive about the prospects for their business over the coming 12 months.

This was the key finding of the "Treasury Verdict" session taken by a live audience poll of senior treasury and finance professionals at EuroFinance's 12th annual conference on Trade, Treasury & Cash Management in the Middle East, held in Dubai.

While a big majority feel more confident, some 12% of treasurers in the region feel that their business' prospects over the next year will be largely similar to their current state. Only 10% of those polled feel less positive about the next 12 months.

This positive stance contrasts sharply with how treasury and finance professionals in the region feel about global economic prospects as a whole. Only 39% of Middle Eastern treasurers feel more positive about the global economic prospects for the next 12 months, while 37% actually feel less positive. The remaining 24% feel that the global economy will perform in a similar way over the next year.

Katharine Morton, EuroFinance's Editorial Director, says: "Treasurers in the Middle East are feeling incredibly positive about their business fortunes over the coming year, and with good reason. There is a lot of liquidity available in the region, while sectors as diverse as real estate and tourism are showing strong growth. This is a region of opportunity for businesses, as the recent award of the World Expo 2020 to Dubai underlines."