Dubai’s Financial Center 2010 Income Grew 5.2% to $2.92 Billion - Bloomberg

Dubai International Financial Center, the tax-free business park for financial-services companies, said income rose 5.2 percent in 2010, helped by a recovery in the Persian Gulf region.

DIFC’s gross domestic product grew to $2.92 billion from $2.77 billion in 2009, contributing 3.6 percent to Dubai’s income and about 1 percent to the U.A.E. economy, Nasser Saidi, DIFC’s chief economist, told a news conference in Dubai today. The number of financial-services companies increased 8.2 percent to 383, while the number of those providing business services rose 4.1 percent to 302.

“The bulk of the companies have come from emerging markets, India, China, South Korea, and our strategy is very much to focus on emerging markets,” Saidi said. “The safe haven effect is important for the U.A.E. and Qatar that will mean that the results of 2011 will be substantially better.”