Dubai's non-oil private sector soars on tourism, trade

Private sector companies in Dubai reported an improvement in business conditions during November led by the travel and retail industry while real estate fell short, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) biggest bank Emirates NBD said here on Tuesday.

"The seasonally adjusted Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker Index signaled the strongest improvement in business conditions since August," which refers to 55.2 in November up from 53.2 in the previous month, Emirates NBD said in an e-mailed statement.

A value above 50 indicates an expanding economy and vice versa.

However, November's data pointed to a mixed picture across the three key sectors monitored by the survey.

While travel and tourism was the best performing area (reaching 57.5), followed by wholesale and retail (56.1); Construction companies, on the other hand, reported only a modest upturn in overall business conditions (51.8).

The Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker Index is derived from individual diffusion indices which measure changes in output, new orders, employment, suppliers' delivery times and stocks of purchased goods.

Employment levels increased slightly in November, but the rate of job creation remained weak in comparison to the trends seen prior to mid-2015.

Khatija Haque, Head of Middle East and North Africa Research at Emirates NBD, said the Dubai Economy Tracker signals a faster rate of expansion for non-oil firms in Dubai in November, and this seems to have been led by the travel and tourism sector.

"The introduction of visas-on-arrival for Chinese nationals, announced in September, may have contributed to the growth in this sector over the last couple of months," she added.

In 2015, Dubai, one of the seven emirates which form the Gulf state UAE, attracted 14.2 million tourists in 2015, up by 7.5 percent.

In 2015, Chinese tourists represented the national group with the highest increase in visitor numbers when 450,000 Chinese travelers flocked to visit Dubai to enjoy its beaches and shopping malls, a 29 percent increase year on year.

Less than three percent of the Dubai economy is based on oil as 90 percent of UAE oil is located in Abu Dhabi.

source: Xinhua