Al-Najjar, one of the three hospitals in Rafah, is no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in the vicinity and the military operation in Rafah
Network International's 2016 card spends report for Q1 also finds that overall tourism spends declined by six per cent in the UAE. Due to a continuous appreciation in the US Dollar along with a bullish global economic outlook and a fall in the prices of crude oil, the largest declines came from China (26 per cent) and Russia (24 per cent). While overall card spending from Europe and North America has decreased by three per cent and five per cent respectively, the following countries display strong positive spending growth for the first three months of 2016: Finland (+28 per cent), United Kingdom (+15 per cent), and Ireland (+15 per cent).The most promising sector in the UAE is undoubtedly the F&B industry with increased domestic card spending of 19 per cent and overall card spends increasing by a healthy 17 per cent. Top international card spending growths came from the MEA region including Saudi Arabia (+31 per cent), Egypt (+29 per cent) and Qatar (+27 per cent). However, Americans also displayed an increased appetite with a strong 20 per cent growth while the UK had a positive 12 per cent growth in the sector.
The luxury retail market took the largest hit in the first three months of 2016 with a decline in card spends of 15 per cent as compared to last year resulting significantly due to the decline in Chinese (52 per cent) and Russian (42 per cent) spending in this sector. There was also a significant decline in card spends by United States (32 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (29 per cent) as well but a modest decrease in domestic card spending of five per cent softened the impact overall. Both overall and domestic card spends in the hotels industry fell slightly by three per cent in Q1 2016 (with a 10 per cent decline in average per purchase spend). Interestingly, card spending from the United Kingdom spiked upwards by 17 per cent.
Supermarkets card spends as expected, are dependent on domestic consumption and grew by 21per cent. Surprisingly, the largest spike in supermarket spending came from cards issued in Egypt (+70 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (+43 per cent). - business@khaleejtimes.com
Al-Najjar, one of the three hospitals in Rafah, is no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in the vicinity and the military operation in Rafah
The tweet also informed people of the different details that a single ID card can provide
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