Abu Dhabi: The UAE's non-oil foreign trade grew 22 per cent to Dh600.1 billion in the first eight months of last year, up from Dh492.5 billion in the same period in 2010, according to the latest report by the UAE Federal Customs Authority (FCA).

Imports grew 22 per cent to Dh386 billion from Dh317.5 billion while exports jumped 40 per cent to Dh75.2 billion from Dh53.6 billion.

Re-exports, meanwhile, grew 15 per cent from Dh121.4 billion in the first eight months of 2010 to Dh139 billion during the same period last year.

Waddah Taha, consultant and analyst at Zarouni Group, told Gulf News that the UAE is on a strong economic footing, and these figures are a good sign of very sound government regulations and strategies, benefiting from its strong banking position to diversify its economy.

"The UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is gearing towards diversifying the country's economy by depending on non-oil sectors to improve the country's economic performance.

Regulations

"The government laws and regulations have helped the country move ahead with its plans to depend on other resources to improve its economy and to increase its GDP," Taha said.

Meanwhile, the UAE's non-oil foreign trade in August 2011 grew 14 per cent to Dh76.2 billion compared to Dh66.5 in August 2010.

The UAE's foreign trade in August 2011 in volume terms was 6.8 million tonnes, of which 4.3 million tonnes were imports, 1.9 million tonnes were exports and 641,000 tonnes were re-exports.

India, China, the US, Japan, Germany, South Korea, the UK, Italy, Switzerland and France respectively, topped their exporters' lists to the UAE last August with a total value of Dh29.4 billion or 60 per cent of the UAE's imports.

India, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, South Africa, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey, and Hong Kong, respectively, spearheaded importers from the UAE with Dh7.7 billion, accounting for 74 per cent of the UAE's exports.

Meanwhile, India, Iran, Belgium, Iraq, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Kuwait, and Qatar topped the list for re-exports valued at Dh12.4 billion, or 73 per cent of the UAE's re-exports.

GCC region

The value of UAE-GCC non-oil foreign trade was Dh4.8 billion in August 2011, of which Dh2.2 billion was imports, Dh1.1 billion was exports and Dh1.5 billion was re-exports.

Saudi Arabia maintained its first rank among GCC trading partners with a value of Dh2 billion.

Kuwait was second with Dh799 million, followed by Oman (Dh727 million), Bahrain (Dh679 million), and Qatar (Dh559 million).

The UAE's total foreign trade with Arab countries in terms of value amounted to Dh9.5 billion in August 2011, with Dh5 billion worth of imports, Dh1.8 billion worth of exports and Dh2.7 billion of re-exports.