JEDDAH: Saudi Arabian traders reported the highest increase in trade confidence in the world. With up 14 points in the 5th HSBC TCI report, this takes the country to second highest in the world, from seventh in the 4th round. The half-year index, developed and published regularly by HSBC, the global partner of the Saudi British bank-SABB, shows that traders see huge positive impact from global exchange rates (up 20 points), the impact of government regulations (up 27 points), and trade volume (up 14 points).
Exporters and importers around the world remain optimistic about trade prospects in the next six months despite increasing concerns about rising costs, reduced profitability and volatile demand. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the regional average was the highest in the world at 118, whilst the global HSBC Trade Confidence Index (TCI) held steady at 114 in the first half of 2011 compared to 116 in the second half of 2010.
This fifth wave of the HSBC TCI shows that MENA traders are most concerned about buyer and supplier risk, with 37 percent (up 11 points on the previous wave) expecting buyer default risk to increase, and 41 percent (up 20 point) expecting increasing numbers of suppliers to be unable to meet their arrangements. The top strategy for managing buyer default risk was greater use of trade finance via banks, with 40 percent of the results. Encouragingly, MENA traders are not concerned about volumes of trade, nor do they see intra-regional trade threatened by recent political events. The number who expects trade volumes to stay the same or increase is up 5 points on the previous round, at 80 percent. …
Source : Arab News, May 8, 2011 23:02