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ABU DHABI / WAM
The central bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has projected the recovery of economic activity to commence in the second half of the year.
The first quarter economic activities witnessed mixed movements, with the UAE economy performing well during the first two months of 2020.
The bank affirmed — in the Quarterly Economic Review 2020 published on Wednesday — that the Targeted Economic Support Scheme (TESS) by the CBUAE and the economic stimulus packages announced by both local and federal governments are likely to weigh in positively on the PMI, real estate prices, employment and credit growth with a positive impact on the overall sentiment.
In line with the agreement by Opec+, the UAE average oil production is projected at 2.984 million barrels per day in 2020.
The report also showed that the UAE labour market witnessed activity as employment, measured by permit holders, in the private sector increased by 1.3 percent and 2.0 percent quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year respectively, in Q1 2020, compared to an increase of 0.3 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively, in the previous quarter.
Jobs in private sector reached 5.159 million employees or 64,000 new positions added in first three months of 2020.
In 2019, private sector jobs have been growing in line with the non-hydrocarbon GDP, being correlated at 70 percent in the most recent period.
The real estate and business services sector and other sectors increased jobs year-on-year in Q1 2020 by 7.1 percent and 11.3 percent, faster than the 6.3 percent and 10.5 percent in the previous quarter, respectively.
Also, employment in the manufacturing sector, which constitutes around 9.2 percent of total employment in the private
sector, continued to grow at the same rate on a year-on-year basis in Q1 2020, as in the
previous quarter, at 1.3 percent.
In addition, the transport, storage and communication sector, which has the lowest share of private sector employment of 6.9 percent, increased employment by 0.9 percent year-on-year.