DUBAI: Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade with the rest of the world grew 38 percent to 934.7 billion dirhams in 2008 compared to 678.5 billion dirhams in 2007, according to figures released by Dubai World’s Statistics Department.
Commenting on the growth, Saeed Al-Qaizi, director of procurement, contracts and statistics at Dubai World, said the emirate’s total foreign trade has maintained its steady growth pattern in 2008, reflecting its basic economic strength.
“Even during times of global economic fluctuations, Dubai has stayed on the course of positive growth.
A close study of the trade trend over the past 10 years shows this pattern will continue in coming years and Dubai will remain the leading trading hub in the region,” said Al-Qaizi.
Nassim Al-Mehairi, senior manager of Statistics Department, said, “Results show that direct trade volume surged by 44 percent, reaching 612.7 billion dirhams in 2008 compared to 2007 when it was 425.4 billion dirhams. The biggest growth was marked in the exports sector, which rose by 58 percent from 27 billion dirhams in 2007 to approximately 42.6 billion dirhams in 2008. This 14 billion-dirham increase underlines the sound nature of the national economy.”
The Statistics Department’s study showed that China ranked as Dubai’s top partner in imports with respect to direct non-oil foreign trade in 2008 at 57 billion dirhams, while India came second at 48 billion dirhams, followed by the US at 34.5 billion dirhams.
In exports, India was on top last year, at 17.3 billion dirhams, followed by Switzerland at 2.7 billion dirhams. Exports to Jebel Ali Free Zone were at approximately 2 billion dirhams. In re-exports, India also maintained first place with 32.8 billion dirhams worth of trade, followed by Iran at 20.3 billion dirhams and Iraq at 8.9 billion dirhams.