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ABU DHABI / WAM
The 2017 non-oil gross domestic product grew 2.9 percent, while the oil real GDP growth was up 1.5 percent, with the country’s real GDP hitting 1.5 percent, according to a UAE Central Bank report that forecast the UAE GDP growth to amount up to 2.5 percent in 2018 and 2.8 percent in 2019.
Government spending over the first nine months of 2017 grew on an annual basis of 23 percent, with employment hitting 2.6 percent during the same period,
said the bank’s annual report, issued on Wednesday. The inflation rate amounted to 1.8% in 2017.
Following the significant decline in oil prices since 2015, global rates relatively recovered in 2017 in the wake of the OPEC output cut deal which pushed prices 27 percent up to $70 per barrel. This production cut brought oil GDP down to 1.5 percent from 3.8 percent in 2016.
The improvement in global oil prices last year reflected positively on the non-oil sector and helped accelerate the diversification drive adopted by the country’s economy which has proved its resilience in times of market volatility.