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UAE trade surplus put at US$86.2bn in 2011
posted on 24/04/2012: 647 views
Strong oil prices boosted the UAE's trade surplus to one of its highest levels of around US$86.2 billion in 2011 while the current account balance also surged above 10 per cent of GDP, according to official data.
Exports of goods climbed to an all time high of around US$265 billion in 2011 while imports reached US$179.3 billion, showed the figures by the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AMF).
The surge in exports boosted the country's trade surplus by around 36 per cent from 63.5 billion in 2010, the AMF said, citing UAE government data.
"The current account surplus is expected to have climbed to about US$37.7 billion, or nearly 10.4 per cent of GDP,” it said.
In its quarter bulletin, the AMF said high oil prices in 2011, averaging a record high of US$105 a barrel, turned a federal budget deficit of 1.3 per cent of GDP in 2010 into a surplus of about 6.5 per cent last year.
The increase in oil sales boosted revenue to around 33.5 per cent of GDP in 2011 from 28.4 per cent in 2010, the report showed.
The UAE pumped around 2.6 million bpd of crude oil in 2011 and higher prices of oil and gas boosted its hydrocarbon revenue by 38 per cent to US$111 billion from US$75 billion in 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund, which also expected revenue to hit an all time high of US$122 billion in 2012.
The UAE, one of the world's largest oil and gas suppliers, earned only about US$52 billion in 2009, nearly 40 per cent below the 2008 income of around US$87 billion because of a sharp fall in oil prices and output.
The IMF said the surge in the UAE's hydrocarbon export income lifted its nominal GDP by around 20.8 per cent to US$360 billion in 2011 from US$298 billion in 2010. It expected GDP to swell further to US$386 billion in 2012 and US$394 billion in 2013. – Emirates 24|7
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