UAE economy to grow at a faster pace next year: IMF

UAE economy to grow at a faster pace next year: IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected that the UAE economy will expand at a faster pace next year at 3.9 per cent as compared to 3.5 per cent this year.

The Fund revised upward last year’s growth from 5.1 per cent in October 2022's World Economic Outlook to 7.4 per cent in its latest WEO report released on Tuesday.

However, it downgraded the 2023 forecast by 0.7 per cent from 4.2 per cent in October to 3.5 per cent on Tuesday.

The UAE Central Bank recently projected the country's real GDP growth for 2023 at 3.9 per cent.

Economists say that the UAE and other oil-producing Gulf economies will slow down this year due to a production cut announced this month for 2023.

Meanwhile, the IMF said the global economy is yet again at a highly uncertain moment.

However, tentative signs in early 2023 that the world economy could achieve a soft landing — with inflation coming down and growth steady — have receded amid stubbornly high inflation and recent financial sector turmoil.

“Although inflation has declined as central banks have raised interest rates and food and energy prices have come down, underlying price pressures are proving sticky, with labour markets tight in a number