Mastercard Economics Institute’s Economic Outlook for 2023: Saudi Arabia defies global dip in housing-related spending

Mastercard Economics Institute’s Economic Outlook for 2023: Saudi Arabia defies global dip in housing-related spending

- Businesses with an omnichannel presence are likelier to withstand shocks by meeting customers where they want to shop

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: The Mastercard Economics Institute released its annual forecast for the coming year, which shows how a new multi-speed global economy will affect growth and consumer spending behavior. The report indicates that some markets will feel the impact of inflation and rising interest rates more keenly.

On the flip side, unemployment rates are projected to decline in several countries, including Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the UAE, signaling more resilience for jobseekers.

‘Economic Outlook 2023’ draws on a multitude of public and proprietary data sets, as well as models that are intended to estimate economic activity across the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) region.

The report explores four themes that will continue to shape the global economic environment — high interest rates and housing, trading down and shopping, prices and preferences, and shocks and omnichannel.

Key findings:

- After years of a housing boom, higher interest rates are poised to squeeze cost-of-living budgets, shifting the way consumers spend broadly. In major developed countries, the outlook anticipates housing-related spending as a share of goods to fall an estimated 4.5%[1] over the course of 2023, below