MENA treasurers are buoyant

Nearly eight in every 10 senior treasury and finance professionals at a Dubai conference (78 per cent) 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 event on trade, treasury and cash management in the Middle East.

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

This positive stance contrasts sharply with how treasury and finance professionals in the region feel about global economic prospects as a whole. Only 39 per cent of Middle Eastern treasurers feel more positive about that, while 37 per cent actually feel less positive. The remaining 24 per cent 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.”