Economic growth in the United Arab Emirates will more than halve this year, as declining oil revenues and a weakening real estate sector sap the strength of the previously ebullient economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The UAE’s real economic growth will slow to a five-year low of 3.3 per cent in 2009, from an estimated 7.4 per cent last year, the Fund forecast in a report on the second-largest Gulf economy released on Monday.
The IMF growth projections are at variance with most private sector analysts. National Bank of Abu Dhabi is forecasting flat real growth in 2009 and a contraction in nominal terms. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch analysts predict the UAE economy will shrink 0.6 per cent in real terms.
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