A survey unveiled Wednesday forwarded a slight plunge in business confidence in the Gulf Arab oil producing region for the Q4 for 2009. In spite of this Kuwait and Saudi Arabia experienced an improvement.

In the prior quarter, the HSBC quarterly survey displayed a decline to 80.2 from 81.4 in the confidence index in the world's to oil exporting region. This was its highest level since October 2008, when the global financial crisis hit.

Vaughan Johnson, HSBC's head of commercial banking for the MENA region, "Confidence is on the rise in the hydrocarbon-producing states of Saudi, Qatar and Kuwait, while the UAE's score is clearly heavily influenced by Dubai's ... debt issues."

The region was led by Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, with a score of 91.6 in the Q4, higher from 91.5 in the previous three months.

The survey showed, "The United Arab Emirates, the world's third largest oil exporter, was worst off at 69.8, down from 72.2 in the third quarter. Fellow oil producer Kuwait saw confidence rising to 84.6 from 83.1."

In the month of November, Dubai, a member of the UAE federation, shocked the markets, when it's asked for a standstill on billions of dollars worth of debt at its flagship companies.

The survey was conducted from Dec. 19-23 and had 1,367 participants in the six Gulf Arab states.