UAE - Mubasher: The UAE's real gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to grow by 2.4% in 2021 and 3.8% in 2022, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
In 2022, the UAE's non-oil real GDP is expected to increase by 3.9%, as shown by the Financial Stability Report (FSR) that was recently released by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) to give an overview of the development of the UAE economy and financial system in 2020.
The FSR covers the developments in the banking sector, namely asset quality and the growth of lending, and the other key sectors of the UAE financial market, including the insurance sector, finance companies, exchange houses, and capital markets.
The report referred that the country's open economy was negatively affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has led to a 6.1% decline in preliminary real GDP during 2020, compared to a 3.4% rise in 2019.
The negative GDP growth is attributed to the decrease of 6.2% in non-oil real GDP, in addition to a drop in the real oil GDP amid the OPEC+ output cuts.
The report showed that the UAE's Targeted Economic Support Scheme has contributed to alleviating the risks imposed by the pandemic by ensuring a continued flow of credit and supporting affected individuals and companies to overcome temporary debt repayment difficulties.
The Governor of the CBUAE, Khaled Mohamed Balama, commented: "In line with the UAE’s robust mitigation measures, including a swift rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, CBUAE has worked tirelessly to ensure that vital sectors of the nation’s economy are able to withstand this crisis.''
Balama added: "CBUAE’s introduction of the Targeted Economic Support Scheme came at the right time, ensuring that banks could mitigate funding and liquidity pressures and maintain their lending capacity, resulting in the provision of necessary aid to individuals and corporates alike."
