State of UAE Retail Economy Q4 Report reveals consumer spending growth of 19% in 2022

State of UAE Retail Economy Q4 Report reveals consumer spending growth of 19% in 2022

DUBAI, 17th March, 2023 (WAM) – Majid Al Futtaim, a leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, today released its ‘State of the UAE Retail Economy’ Q4 report, which revealed that overall consumer spending was up 19 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year.

There was a notable 13 percent growth in spending across the retail economy for the full year including, leisure and entertainment (29 percent), fashion (25 percent), hypermarkets and supermarkets (11 percent) and general retail (9). This increase was driven by the rise in international visitors to the UAE, which more than doubled to 14 million in 2022, bolstered by major events including FIFA World Cup in neighbouring Qatar.

growth for the long-term.”

Macroeconomic Trends

The UAE posted its strongest annual GDP growth since 2006, jumping to 7.9 percent, from 3.9 percent in 2021. The drivers of this boost were broad-based, across oil and non-oil sectors. As expected, oil remained the main component due to a rise of around 38 percent in the average oil price, causing the sector to rebound to 11.4 percent growth, after contracting by 0.7 percent the previous year.

The non-oil economy demonstrated robust growth at 6.6 percent, buoyed