Whoa! Really? What a load of debt...
HOW much debt are consumers in this part of the world in? Go on, guess! $10 billion? $50bn? $100bn? More? Total consumer debt across the GCC is an estimated $139bn.
And there's more...
* The UAE has one of the highest take ups of credit cards anywhere on the planet, with 199.4 cards per 100 people, according to Lafferty Group.
* Consumers in the GCC owe an estimated $7.7 billion in outstanding credit card debt: an average $1,135 is owed on each of the 6.8 million credit cards in the region.
* More than a quarter of UAE residents have debts of more than AED 250,000 ($68,061) and 20% have no idea how much debt they are in, according to Arabian Business.
* Debt can lead to some pretty unpleasant things... some 80% of UAE residents with debts have had threatening calls.
* At the height of the credit crunch in 2009, some UAE banks were seeing up to 2,500 customers leave the country every month without paying off their credit card bills.
* Emergency cash requirements of UAE consumers has tripled in the last three years, says Dunia Finance. Emergency cash loans rose to 15% in 2011 from 5% in 2008, while home loans have declined to half during this period - from 20% in 2008 to just 10% last year.
* And it's not just expats pushing the numbers up. Emiratis have an estimated AED 48bn ($13.1bn) in debt.
* Around 70% of locals live under the shadow of debt, largely for reasons related to the desire to acquire luxury goods and a lack of financial planning.
Pic credit: Matt Banks/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Comments
This just in, Sheikh Khalifa has announced that he will wave all debts owed by Emiratis, provided they're under AED 1 million. That's a whopping 2 billion worth of debt cleared.
And another article states that the debt will be cleared provided that said 6000 Emiratis take a 25% cut from their salaries in order to pay off their debt and prevent them from overspending in the future. Is that a sound decision?
Debt is simply the result of living beyond your means. Did you know that around 65-70% of the UAE's population are suffering from bad debt that they're struggling to repay?
Unfortunately, suicide has become a way to escape debts. I have read in Khaleej Times newspaper that at least 53 Indian nationals committed suicide in 2011 in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. This was according to official records.
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