UAE economy seen growing almost 4 pct in 2012
The United Arab Emirates’ economy is likely to expand nearly 4
percent this year, the Gulf country's Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed
al-Mansouri said on Tuesday.
World's tallest tower in Dubai. Picture by Saliya Rupasinghe |
“The UAE economy is expected to grow by almost 4 percent in 2012,” he
told a conference in the UAE capital.
“This is an estimate; by the end of the year it could be better.”
Last November, Mansouri had said Europe's debt crisis and weakness in
the U.S. economy might slow the UAE's growth to around 3 percent in
2012.
But since then there have been signs that the debt crisis is easing
and that the U.S. economy is strengthening.
The minister's latest prediction is more optimistic than a forecast
by the International Monetary Fund, which predicted last week that the
UAE's economic growth would slow to 2.3 percent in 2012 from an
estimated 4.9 percent last year.
Mansouri declined to comment on how the UAE economy performed last
year, saying he wanted to give an exact figure.
The UAE's statistics bureau has yet to release 2011 GDP data, which
is expected by the end of this month.
Robust oil prices and strong trade flows with Asia have helped the
UAE, one of the top five crude oil exporters globally, recover from the
2009-2010 Dubai debt crisis, which exposed excesses in its property
sector and led to a $25 billion debt restructuring at state-owned Dubai
World. (Reuters) |