UAE foreign trade bucks global trend to rise 25% - The National

The flow of goods in and out of the UAE defied global headwinds to surge 25 per cent to a record high of Dh1 trillion (US$272.24 billion) last year, said a senior trade official.

Despite the euro-zone crisis, the non-oil trade data for the single-currency bloc was also strong, with exports to troubled Greece rising by about 67 per cent, said Abdullah Al Saleh, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The data does not include figures for free zones, where trade rose 19 per cent for the year.

Demand for the country's goods - including gold and plastics - also held up well as exports rose 36 per cent.

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