UAE GDP will expand 4.2% in 2019

CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR SAYS THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY IS ON A SOLID FOUNDATION

The UAE Central Bank governor expects the country’s economy to grow by 4.2 per cent in 2019 on the back of rising oil prices as well as the strong policies of the government to boost its economy.

Speaking at IIF Mena Financial Summit in Abu Dhabi yesterday, Mubarak Rashed Al Mansouri said the GDP growth for 2018 will be 2.8 per cent and for 2019 it would be 4.2 per cent.

“Despite all the difficulties, we are on a solid foundation. The recent laws that have come on stream will help us really excel forward. We are seeing very positive signs from the private sector and the credit growth to the private sector is up by 6.5 per cent.”

Third quarter GDP

The third quarter GDP growth would be 3.1 per cent with non-oil GDP at 3.3 per cent, he added. For 2019 nonoil GDP would be 3.7 per cent.

The comments come as oil prices rise and the UAE issues new laws to boost the investment climate in the country. The UAE government issued debt law, investment law and bankruptcy law to attract more investment into the country recently.

“The UAE fared much better than many in the other countries in the region due to polices of the government to diversify the economy away from oil. Non-oil contribution to GDP is almost 77 per cent and this helped country really to take on the shock of low oil prices.”

Speaking on inflation, the central bank governor said it would be 3.6 per cent in 2018 due to implementation of value added tax which came into effect in January this year.

“We started in January at high level of inflation but it’s been declining ever since. In September it was 3.3 per cent and we expect to end up at 3.6 per cent inflation for this year.”

“So things are starting to materialise. Growth is there, liquidity is there. A lot of new government initiatives have been announced. We are in good times.”