UAE Expands Non-Oil Trade to $435 Billion After Striking Pacts

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign trade excluding oil rose an annual 17% to nearly 1.6 trillion dirhams ($435.6 billion) in the first half of the year after the Gulf nation struck new investment pacts to diversify the economy. 

Non-oil exports grew 8% to 180 billion dirhams, while imports increased to 580 billion dirhams, according to a tweet on Monday from the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who’s also the ruler of Dubai. 

The UAE’s economy is arguably the most diversified in the oil-rich Gulf, thanks in part to Dubai, considered the Middle East’s business and trade hub. 

Still, the country has in recent years intensified efforts to expand its sources of income away from oil by focusing on emerging markets. Growth in the UAE’s non-oil economy is forecast to accelerate 3.4% this year, the International Monetary Fund says. 

It has already signed trade deals with Turkey, India and Indonesia and intends to add more in Asia and Africa. 

Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi said new partnership agreements were responsible for “greater trade flows and attracting more FDI into priority sectors.”