The Impact of Financial Macroeconomic Indicators on Mobile Money: An Empirical Evidence of GCC Countries

Abstract

The telecommunications sector has been a vital sector in the GCC in recent years. In addition, many players in the financial market have exploited the use of telecommunications technology to provide mobile money services that have gone beyond traditional operations. Using mobile money customers received operational benefits while there were challenges in using mobile money. Therefore, the main purpose of this study aims to analyze the impact of macroeconomic variables on mobile money. This study used stepwise regression over the period 2011–2017 in six GCC countries. The results show that there is a significant impact between financial macroeconomic indicators such as (official exchange rate; domestic credit and stocks traded, total value) on mobile Money at strong significant level. The main conclusion is to increase spending and allocated on digital payment systems in building a strategy at the country level that enhances the electronic payment system, which contributes to reduce costs and increase the accuracy of transactions and accept customers.