In the UAE, 88 percent of CEOs expect strong profits and increased growth this year, including increased revenues compared to 2022.
And 84 percent expect their business to grow by more than 2.5 percent over the next three years, according to the results of the new edition of KPMG’s “prospects and expectations of CEOs in the UAE” report, which surveyed 1,325 CEOs from around the world.
56% of the UAE CEOs stressed that artificial intelligence is a top investment priority, although most of them do not expect a significant return on their investments for the next three to 7 years.
The report revealed that chief executives in the UAE prefer a more collaborative leadership approach, with 72 percent of them expecting employees to return to work from their offices full-time, compared to 60 percent last year.
Only 20 percent envision a hybrid business model, compared to 27 percent of their counterparts around the world, while 8 percent plan to fully allow remote work.
While most CEOs around the world plan to attract employees to their offices with tasks they prefer and other privileges, most CEOs in the UAE stated that they are either neutral or unlikely to reward office workers, which means that work at the workplace will be expected.
The report “performance of the banking sector in the UAE for the third quarter of 2023”, issued by Alvarez & Marsal, showed an improvement in the profitability of the banking sector in the country.
The report explained that this improvement, mainly driven by an increase in non-interest income and a decrease in depreciation provisions.
According to the report, the banking sector has seen an improvement in profitability thanks to the increase in total operating income by 15.4 percent on a quarterly basis.
Non-core income also increased by 2.4 percent on a quarterly basis, depreciation provisions decreased (by -11.7 percent on a quarterly basis).
Net interest income experienced a strong growth of 5.5 percent, despite the fact that the benchmark interest rate reached its peak.
Loans and advances also experienced quarterly growth of 2.4 percent, mostly driven by the expansion of corporate and wholesale loans by 2.5 percent on a quarterly basis.
High-cost term deposits saw demand from customers due to higher interest rates, which led to an increase in overall deposit growth of 5.1 percent on a quarterly basis, exceeding the growth of loans and advances, which amounted to 3.9 percent on a quarterly basis.
