UAE residents’ debt levels have risen from $7,110 to $28,483, the investment bank said The wealth of the average adult in the UAE has tripled over the course of the last decade, rising from $56,777 in 2000 to $150,121 this year, according to the latest data from Swiss bank Credit Suisse.

However, indebtedness has also grown at an even faster level, quadrupling over the last 10-year period.

UAE residents’ debt levels have risen from $7,110 to $28,483, the investment bank said. The rise is due to increased consumerism and the access to easy credit in the period leading up to the global recession.

Furthermore, the UAE’s percentage of world wealth has more than doubled from 0.11 percent in 2000 to 0.28 percent this year.

The Credit Suisse research showed that global wealth had rise by 72 percent since 2010, despite housing bubbles and near-zero real returns on equities.

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Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit may narrow to about 0.5 percent of gross domestic product this year as revenue rises, Banque Saudi Fransi said.

The gap will probably be SR8.4bn ($2.2bn), John Sfakianakis, the bank’s chief economist, wrote in an e- mailed report on Sunday. Last year’s deficit was 86.6 billion riyals, or more than 10 percent of GDP, according to data from the Kingdom’s central bank. It was the first time Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil supplier, had posted a deficit since 2002, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Government revenue may increase 25 percent this year to 639.6 billion riyals, Sfakianakis said. Still, higher spending will make it hard for the kingdom to return to budget surpluses this year or next “unless there is a decent turnaround in energy demand globally,” he said.

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