UAE GDP to Grow

The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) expects the UAE gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 2% this year against a contraction of  1% over 2009. The periodical bulletin of the Arab Capital Markets performance and economic indicators for the first half of the year said that developments in the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market indicated that the consolidated budget, based on the current oil prices, would register a total surplus of US$3.8 billion as compared to last year, or an equivalent of 6% of the GDP. The IMF noted that this surplus surpassed the last year's figure of US$1 billion but less than that of 2008. ''While the private deposits surged slightly at one 1% to US$194 billion by the end of April 2010, loans and advances offered to the private sector grew by less than one per cent to US$195.6 billion.- WAM