Reuters reported that Abu Dhabi's economy is recovering from impacts of the global economic crisis with business and consumer confidence rising.
A set of new indicators for the oil exporting emirate showed that the worst global recession since the 1930s slashed income for Gulf oil producers, depressing the region's key economies like Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. But Abu Dhabi, the key oil producer among seven emirates that form the UAE federation, said signs of revival are emerging. Abu Dhabi contributes around two thirds to the UAE's total gross domestic product.
Mr Mohammed Omar Abdulla undersecretary at the emirate's Department of Economic Development said that "It reflects positive performance of the economy. He said that “And also the positive reaction of people be it consumers or the business community. So both sides are very positive and very optimistic and this provides a very good base for our future plan."
Abu Dhabi's new business climate indicator of future expectations climbed higher into the positive territory, reaching 68.01 in the Q3 of 2009 up from 56.96 in the Q2.
Another quarterly index, showing how corporate assess current conditions, cleared the no change 50.0 level scoring 53.55 compared with a bearish reading of 49.49 in April to June. The inaugural release showed that average consumer confidence in the emirate rose to 138 in July to September from 125 in the previous 3 months. It will be released on a monthly basis.
Mr Abdulla said that the outlook for 2010 would be released next month. He said that the statistics centre was preparing to launch monthly releases of inflation data as of 2010.
Analysts said that it was hard to assess the extent of economic recovery in the Gulf due to a lack of monthly real economy data in the world's top oil producing region and the UAE in particular.
Mr Sultan bin Saeed Al-Mansouri economy minister of UAE said recently that the Arab world's second largest economy would grow 1.3% in 2009 with anti crisis measures boosting confidence.
The UAE growth forecast would mark a significant slowdown from 7.4% rise in 2008 but is still welcome news given the warning last month from the country's central bank that the economy could contract 2009.
Officials said that the business climate indicators measure development of mainly production volume, added value volume, sales, operation capacity, exports, inventories, prices and investment but gave no further details. The consumer confidence index includes spending and saving expectations during the last 3 months, the current period and next 3 months.
Abu Dhabi has also started tracking financial sector indicators such as inflation rate and non oil exports on a quarterly basis and labour market demand on an annual basis.
(Sourced from Reuters)
