UAE non-oil trade put at Dh735 bn in 2011

The UAE’s non-oil trade will swell by around 11.2 per cent to Dh735 billion in 2011 while re-exports will surge by nearly 20.1 per cent, according to the ministry of foreign trade.

Trade this year will be around Dh74 billion above the 2010 commercial exchange and growth in re-export will be nearly four times that in imports, a ministry official said in a lecture published by the Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum.

“Exports will also record high growth which could be as much as seven times that in imports,” said Matar Abdullah, director of the ministry’s analysis and data section.

He said sanction-hit Iran has remained the UAE’s key trading partner, accounting for nearly 3.6 per cent of the country’s total trade.

His figures showed the UAE’s re-exports, mostly from Dubai, would surge by around Dh30 billion or 20.1 per cent to about Dh177 billion in 2011 compared with the previous year.

Non-oil exports are also projected to jump by nearly Dh23 billion or 35.4 per cent to about Dh88 billion while imports will likely rise by around Dh22 billion or five per cent to Dh470 billion.

He said the low growth in imports will be a result of the slowdown in some sectors, mainly construction, adding that the UAE’s imports of steel slumped by around Dh33 billion last year.

“In 2010, there was a decline in the country’s non-oil trade deficit by nearly 31.1 per cent, saving the local economy about Dh107 billion…this has not happened for a long period of time.”

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