UAE’s economic growth on track for 4.2% GDP growth despite inflation rise: Central Bank

UAE’s economic growth on track for 4.2% GDP growth despite inflation rise: Central Bank

Dubai: The UAE is on track to achieve the 4.2 per cent growth forecast for 2022 while inflationary pressures are rising, according to the latest quarterly economic review of the UAE Central Bank. It estimates that real GDP grew by 2.3 per cent in 2021, up from an earlier forecast of 2.1 per cent. For 2022, CBUAE kept its projections at 4.2 per cent for real GDP growth, with the non-oil real GDP and real oil GDP forecast to grow by 3.9 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. The central bank attributed the strong economic recovery to effective containment of the coronavirus, strong gains in the oil prices and improved oil output. Oil production increased by 9.3 per cent year-on-year in Q4-2021. “High oil and gas prices were beneficial for the UAE external position and budget revenue, albeit raising the cost of transportation, and putting pressure on domestic inflation,” the CBUAE said. Total non-oil exports of the UAE increased year-on-year by 29 per cent in Q4-2021 and imports by 26.6 per cent. The central bank noted that key non-oil sectors of the economy such as travel, tourism and hospitality, real estate and telecommunications are on a strong recovery path.