DPE to release Abu Dhabi survey results by year-end

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi's Department of Planning and Economy (DPE) said on Monday it will release the results of surveys it undertook earlier this year in the emirate of Abu Dhabi by the end of this year.

"We will finish the field works by the end of November. Results of the surveys will be finalised at the end of this year," Osama M Al Zoubi, National Accounts Expert for the DPE said at a news conference here.

DPE is conducting industrial survey, construction survey, surveys on wholesale and retail trade and retail services, financial intermediation survey, services survey and foreign direct investment survey.

"As a first step, we will be conducting the surveys annually for one or two years. After that, we plan to have these surveys on a quarterly basis," Al Zoubi said.

"The surveys are being done to determine capital and distribution of capital by a group of nationalities in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, the value of output by companies and sector and investments of the companies in 2007," he said.

Nasser Mohammad Dayan, head of economic statistics section and the head of economic surveys for DPE said there are 11 groups in Abu Dhabi working on the surveys, while in Al Ain there are four groups.

"Each group comprises of one supervisor and four enumerators," Dayan said.

Data collected by the enumerators will capture figures up to the end of 2007. "There will be 4,500 companies our enumerators will cover. We expect companies and establishments to cooperate with our enumerators," said Al Zoubi.

"For next year, we plan to complete our surveys by October 2009 to finalise the results of 2008," Al Zoubi added.

Al Zoubi said Abu Dhabi is releasing consumer price index (CPI) data on a quarterly basis, while construction material prices are being released monthly.

Denial: Inflation figure

A senior DPE official on Monay denied that the department had released any data on inflation for the second quarter of 2008.

Commenting on a Reuters report earlier in the day which said inflation in Abu Dhabi rose to 12.88 per cent in the second quarter of 2008, Abu Baker A. Al Amoudi , director of statistical Administration, told Gulf News, "This is a wrong number. Inflation figures for the second quarter of 2008 are still not available as we are reviewing the numbers. The final figures for inflation during the second quarter of 2008 will likely be made available within the next two weeks."