"There
will be no increase in the tariff of electricity and water consumption
during the few coming years in Dubai," Nejib Al-Zaafrani, secretary
general and chief executive of Dubai's Supreme Council of Energy (SCE)
said in a statement. He did not specify the number of years. The
government of Dubai owns utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority,
and the SCE is responsible for ensuring energy supplies in the emirate
where increasing demand for cooling and are major drivers for rapidly
rising electricity use.Living costs in the trade and business hub of
Dubai grew 0.8 percent on an annual basis in June, the biggest rise in
two months. Prices of housing, water and electricity, the biggest Dubai
basket component, dipped 0.2 percent.Analysts polled by Reuters in
June expected UAE inflation to accelerate to 2.5 percent this year from
0.9 percent in 2010, which was the lowest annual level since the Gulf
war started in 1990.Rising demand for electricity in Dubai, where
soaring summer temperatures drive up air conditioning use, has forced
the energy-hungry emirate to buy more natural gas on an increasingly
tight global market to feed its power stations. Gas prices have
risen markedly in 2011 partly on increased demand from leading importer
Japan after the closure of many of its nuclear plants in the wake of the
March earthquake and tsunami.
