IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND CONSUMPTION SPENDING IN SAUDI ARABIA

The global pandemic situation due to COVID-19 is not over yet. Restrictions on daily living, such as maintaining social distancing have reduced many business operations. While the researchers are busy on preventing the coronavirus, economists are taking down on mitigating the crisis through policy measures. This paper aims to fill the research gap by focusing on income loss and consumption spending for households in Saudi Arabia for the possible impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The study used online survey using a structured questionnaire that was administered in the social media platform. Using snowball sampling technique from 311 participants, it was found that 62% of respondents had an income loss with a shift of spending behaviour for certain commodities due to the pandemic. Furthermore, the participants' source of income and household combination has been attributed to predict the impact on household income using Probit regression models. The findings are expected to help the researchers, marketers and policymakers to strategize their future actions for reducing the impact of Covid-19