UAE's Largest Emirate Records 21.8% Growth in GDP

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate of oil-rich the United Arab Emirates (UAE), exceeded 400 billion dirhams (109 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, up 21.8 percent over 341 billion dirhams in 2006, local newspaper Gulf News reported on Thursday.

The rapid growth in Abu Dhabi's GDP are mainly attributed to soaring oil prices and the government's efforts to achieve economic diversification, according to the Economic and Social Report for 2008 released by the emirate's Department of Planning and Economy (DPE).

The share of oil revenues fell from 92.3 percent to 91.6 percent despite the rising prices, indicating the strong growth in non-oil sectors, Ahmad Zain Al Manawi, an economic expert at DPE, was quoted as saying.

With more than 40 billion dirhams allocated for tourism development and more than 100 billion dirhams for new real estate projects up to 2010, DPE expects growth to intensify further in the coming years.

The emirate also seeks to increase the value of foreign direct investments (FDI), which stood at 17.8 billion dirhams in 2007.

This is a relatively low value, accounting for only 24 percent of the total FDI received by the UAE in 2007, while Abu Dhabi's contribution to the country's GDP exceeds 58 percent, DPE said in its report.

Spread over 87,340 square kilometers, Abu Dhabi is the largest of the seven emirates of the UAE and accounts for more than 85 percent of the country's total landmass.

The emirate's proven crude oil reserves stand at 92.2 billion barrels, representing 94 percent of the total reserves of the UAE, which is the world's sixth largest oil exporter. (1 U.S. dollar = 3.67 dirhams) 

Source: CRIEnglish