Gulf Industry Magazine helps you catch up with the numbers behind economic and industrial developments in the region.

$28bn invested in UAE factories

UP to 6,303 factories have been running investments worth more than Dh103.1 billion ($28 billion) in the UAE until the end of 2016, a senior government official said.

“The food and beverage industry accounts for 30 per cent of the total volume of the country’s industrial sector followed by the primary mineral industries with 24 per cent, the non-metallic raw products industry with 14.9 per cent, refined oil products with 6.6 per cent, the chemical industries with 6.5 per cent and the metallic product industries with 5.5 per cent,” Abdulla Al Saleh, Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade and Industry at Ministry of Economy, was quoted as saying by Wam, the Emirates official news agency.

Saudi Arabia is the UAE’s fourth major world trade partner, comprising 4.6 per cent of UAE’s non-oil trade in 2016 and the country’s top Arab partner, making up 43 per cent of UAE’s non-oil trade with GCC states and 27 per cent of UAE’s non-oil trade with all Arab nations.

Mena growth to top 3pc

DESPITE a growth slowdown in 2017 at 2.1 percent, economic prospects in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region is projected to improve in 2018 and 2019 with growth exceeding 3 percent, according to the new World Bank report.

Both Mena’s oil exporters and oil importers will benefit from a steady improvement in global growth; increased trade with Europe and Asia; more stable commodity markets, especially oil; and reforms undertaken in some of the countries in the region, said the World Bank Mena Economic Monitor titled “Refugee Crisis in Mena, Meeting the Development Challenges.”

“The short-term prospects of economic recovery are contingent on several factors, including the uncertainty arising from prolonged conflicts in the region and the massive numbers of forcibly displaced persons” said Lili Mottaghi, World Bank economist and the report lead author.

Oil demand to increase

WORLD oil demand in 2018 is anticipated to grow by 1.4 mbpd, following an upward adjustment of 30,000 bpd over the previous projection, due to the improving economic outlook in the world economy, particularly China and Russia, according to Opec Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) for October.

Positive revisions were primarily a result of higher-than-expected oil demand from the OECD region and China, the MOMR noted.

Abu Dhabi’s GDP set to hit $231bn

STANDARD & Poor’s has forecast that Abu Dhabi emirate’s GDP will rise to Dh850 billion ($231.3 billion) and Dh890 billion ($242 billion) at current prices in 2017 and 2018, respectively. It attributed the growth to the momentum witnessed by the oil and non-oil sectors since the beginning of this year.

The credit ratings agency expects the UAE emirate’s per capital GDP to amount to Dh277,000 during 2017 at current prices, which is the highest across the GCC states. Inflation is anticipated to stand at 2.5 per cent during 2017 and projected to get down to 2 per cent in 2018, reported state news agency Wam.

The forecasts are in harmony with those announced by the Statistics Centre- Abu Dhabi earlier, which expected the emirate’s economy to grow by 17.7 per cent during Q1 2017 against the corresponding period last year.

The Oil & Gas sector’s contribution to the emirate’s GDP declined to 27.5 percent in 2016 while the non-oil sector contributed a 50-year high of 72.5 percent, which translates the successful economic diversification measures taken by the government.

Dubai-Colombia trade hits $138m

DUBAI’s non-oil trade with Colombia reached $138 million in 2016, a 200 percent increase from 2012, said Hamad Buamim, president and CEO of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

Speaking at the end of a visit by a high-level delegation of the DCCI to Colombia, he noted that there is still potential to boost Colombian exports of flowers, fruits, coffee, and cocoa to the emirate, reported Wam, the Emirates official news agency.

He also urged key stakeholders from the country’s public and private sectors to enhance their co-operation with the emirate.

Saudi Arabia records 2pc non-oil growth

SAUDI ARABIA’s non-oil growth picked up in July and August, recording a 2 per cent year-on-year growth, according to Bloomberg Intelligence Economics’ new monthly series of Saudi GDP.

Created by Ziad Daoud, Middle East Economist, the Bloomberg Monthly GDP for Saudi Arabia provides analysis on the kingdom’s GDP based on the latest oil and non-oil indicators. The model makes use of monetary and financial variables such as real ATM cash withdrawals, money supply growth, points of sales transactions and bank clearings of cheques.

The first analysis in the series has found that annual growth in all of these has increased in July and August, compared with the second quarter of this year. These are combined to mimic the movement in non-oil GDP as closely as possible, and show growth of about 2 per cent year-on-year in the non-oil sector.

If this growth persists at this rate until the end of the year, the non-oil sector will show an average expansion of 1.3 per cent in 2017, the report said.

UAE’s ICT sector sees $4bn in sales

SALES within the UAE’s ICT sector reached $4 billion in 2016, driven by growing demand for products and services within the country’s public and private sectors, according to new analysis from by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The analysis, based on recent data from Business Monitor International (BMI) and Euromonitor International, was released during the Gitex Technology Week 2017 in Dubai, UAE and looked at sales within product categories such as computer hardware, and software, as well as IT, communication, and telecommunication services.

The data showed that increased use of computers in homes and offices and the adoption of new ICT technologies has led to increased demand for ICT goods and services in the UAE and foreign markets.

Sales within the UAE’s computer hardware and peripheral segment amounted to around 3.5 million units last year, a 52 per cent surge compared to 2012.

Products sold in this segment include computer products such as PCs, laptop computers, tablets and peripherals such as printers and monitors. The growth in mobile computing has led to a robust increase in the share of smaller tablet computers compared to the total value of computer sales.