Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s GDP is expected to grow by 4.2 per cent in 2011, compared to 1.4 per cent in 2010 and – 1.6 per cent in 2009 due to robust oil prices, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Rashed Al Suweidi, director-general of the National Bureau of Statistics, said: “This is a preliminary figure but it is around the IMF’s estimation for the UAE economy, which expected earlier, that the UAE’s GDP would rise by 4.1 per cent.”
“The contribution of non-oil exports to the GDP are expected to record 65 per cent this year compared to 69 per cent last year; while oil exports would contribute 35 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2011,” said Sufian Awad, economic expert at the National Bureau of Statistics.
Awad added that the inflation rate in 2011 is expected to be less than 2 per cent due to the weak property market.
“Inflation is expected to be around 1.8 per cent, compared to 0.88 per cent in 2010 and 1.56 in 2009,” he explained, pointing out that the major drop in prices is the housing sector.
“Food, garments and educational expenses increased this year but the drop in house rentals which constitute up to 40 per cent of the household’s basket affected the CPI,” Awad explained.
“The main risk to our forecast emanates from the potential for a more prolonged period of dollar weakness than currently predicted,” he added.
The first statistics conference will be held in Abu Dhabi during the period of November 15 to 16, 2011 to discuss the importance of statistics for decision makers.
