Statistics prepared by the national statistical authorities in the GCC countries showed that GCC consumer expenditures in the groups (housing, food and beverages, transportation, and home furnishing and maintenance) account for about 64.4% of their total income. The rest of the income is distributed among the rest of the spending groups. On average, GCC consumers spend about 6.5% of their income on a variety of goods and services that include personal care goods and some other expenses such as government fees and insurance.

Gulf consumers spend an average of 6.5% of their income on a variety of goods and services.

Housing and Accessories

Housing and its dependencies represent a heavy burden for GCC citizens in terms of maintenance, energy and so on, as the average spending on housing and its dependencies reaches about 26.2% of the total per capita income, and this percentage varies from one country to another, as the percentage of consumer spending in the UAE on housing and its dependencies reaches about 34.1% of his income, the consumer in Kuwait about 28.9% of his income, the consumer in Oman about 26.5% of his income, the consumer in Bahrain about 25.2% of his income, the consumer in Qatar about 21.9% of his income, and the consumer in Saudi Arabia about 20.5% of his total income.

Food and Beverages

Food and beverages is the second most important group in terms of importance to the consumer (i.e. the ratio of expenditure to total income) after housing and its dependencies, with GCC consumers spending 17.7% of their total income on food and beverages.

Food and beverages is the second most important group to the consumer.

Omani consumers spend the most on this group in relation to income level, with Omani consumers spending 23.9% of their total income on food and beverages, followed by Saudi consumers who spend about 21.7% of their total income on food and beverages.7% of their income on this group, followed by Kuwaitis who spend about 18.4% of their income, Bahrainis, Emiratis and Qataris who spend 15.3%, 14.3% and 12.6% (respectively) of their total income.

Omani consumers spend about 23.9% of their total income on food and beverages.

Transportation Group

In third place comes the transportation group with a spending ratio of about 13% of the total income of GCC consumers. Omani consumers spend 19.2% of their income on transportation, followed by Qatar and the UAE with 14.6% of income, Bahrain with 11.5%, Saudi Arabia with 10.4%, and Kuwait with 7.9% of income. Saudi Arabia ranked penultimate in the level of spending on transportation despite the size of the Saudi territory compared to the rest of the GCC countries due to the fuel subsidies that are still in place today.

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Furnishing and equipping the home

Home furnishing and equipping came in fourth in terms of spending in the GCC. The average spending on this group amounted to about 7.5% of the total GCC consumer income, and spending on home furnishing and maintenance accounted for about 11.3% of the total Kuwaiti consumer income, 9.1% in Saudi Arabia, about 7.7% in Qatar, 7.4% in Bahrain, 5.6% in the UAE and 3.8% in Oman.

Furnishing, equipping and maintaining the home ranked fourth in terms of spending in the GCC countries.

Personal Supplies

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GCC consumers spend about 6.3% of their income on clothing and footwear, about 5.7% of their income on communications, about 5.4% of their income on recreation and culture, about 5.1% on hotels and restaurants, about 4.3% on education, about 1.9% on education and about 0.4% on tobacco. The attached table gives a clear picture of the levels of spending on goods and services in the GCC countries.