UAE Foreign Trade Hit Record $817bn in 2024...
The UAE’s foreign trade has reached a historic milestone, touching AED3tn ($817bn) for the first time by the end of 2024.
UAE News:
The UAE’s foreign trade has reached a historic milestone, touching AED3tn ($817bn) for the first time by the end of 2024, said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed said that under the leadership of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the nation continues to achieve its strategic economic and developmental goals at a faster and more efficient rate than planned.
The UAE Federal Tax Authority will impose a monthly penalty of 14% per annum for unpaid corporate tax. Payments are to be made no later than 9 months after the end of the tax period.
ADNOC signed a three-year LNG supply agreement with Japan’s Jera Global Markets worth a total of AED 1.65bn (USD 450mn). The gas will be supplied from the 6mn tonnes per annum Das Island liquefaction facility.
Dubai International Airport welcomed a record 92mn travellers last year, up by almost 6% YoY, disclosed Dubai’s ruler in a post on X.
The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre reported a 45% rise in transaction value to AED 96.2bn (USD 26.19bn) in Abu Dhabi’s real estate market in 2024. The number of transactions increased by 24.2% YoY to 28.249. FDI into the sector surged by 125% YoY to over AED 7.86bn, from 2302 investors across 105 countries.
Official data showed that the value of real estate transactions in Dubai surged 20% YoY to AED 761bn (USD 207.2bn) in 2024 while number of transactions were up 36% to 226k. Around 110k new investors flocked to the sector, up 55% YoY.
Dubai’s residential sales jumped by 30% YoY to AED 119bn in Q4, according to CBRE Middle East. Prices also increased with apartment prices up 18% (to AED 1,647 per square foot) and villa prices up 20% (to AED 2,024).
Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone disclosed that 13,141 new companies joined the free zone in 2024, up 66% YoY. General trading, e-commerce, and related businesses together accounted for 53% of the new company registrations while consultancy accounted for 25%.
MENA News:
Bahrain approved plans to increase oil revenue contributions to the wealth fund – under this revised law, the allocation will depend on the price of oil. For prices between USD 40-60(/ USD 60-80 / USD 80-100 / USD 100-120/ USD 120+), USD 1(/ 2/ 3 /4 / 5) from every exported barrel is allocated to the fund. The change will come into effect from next fiscal year.
MPs in Bahrain once again approved a 2.0% expat remittance tax, roughly a year after it was rejected by the Shura Council. If the Shura Council rejects another time, a joint session of the National Assembly will have to vote on the plan. The tax is expected to amount to less than 0.1% of Bahrain’s GDP (USD 47.8bn).
Remittances into Egypt surged by 65.4% YoY to around USD 2.6bn as of November 2024. Between July and November 2024, remittance inflows grew by 77% YoY to USD 13.8bn.
Oman issued a new draft personal income tax law with key amendments: this has been approved by the State Council and Majlis Al Shura and has been sent to the Sultan for final approval. The latest draft raises the exemption threshold (to OMR 50k or USD 130k) and lowers the proposed tax rates (to 5% from 15%). No timeline has been announced for the law’s implementation.
Oman and India signed an amended protocol for the double taxation avoidance agreement and prevention of financial evasion.
Qatar Financial Centre reported a 156% YoY growth in new firms registrations last year: 836 new firms joined the centre, raising the total number of firms to 2,489 and combined assets under management to USD 33mn+.
UAE emerged as the largest supplier of oil to Japan in December, providing 35.97mn barrels or 45.6% of total imports (that amounted to 78.85mn barrels). Saudi Arabia exported 31.05mn barrels to Japan in December, or 39.4% of its oil imports, followed by Kuwait, Qatar and Oman (with 5mn, 3.41mn and 0.5mn barrels respectively).
Funding deals for startups in MENA grew by 3.5% YoY in 2024, with a total 610 deals though funding value fell by 42% YoY to USD 2.3bn. The fintech sector attracted 30% of total funding (or USD 700mn) last year; Web 3.0 and e-commerce attracted USD 256.8mn and USD 253mn in funding respectively.
Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority revealed that it would allow foreign investment in listed companies that own real estate in Mecca and Medina, leading to a surge in the price of such Tadawul-listed companies. The move will attract foreign capital and support the development of the 2 cities (expected to welcome 30mn pilgrims for Haj and umrah annually by 2030).
According to the governor of the General Authority for Military Industries, military spending in Saudi Arabia grew at an annual rate of 4.5% since 1960, amounting to USD 75.8bn in 2024 (or 3.1% of global defence spending). In the 2025 budget, USD 78bn has been set aside for the military sector, around 21% of total spending and 7.19% of GDP.
Fitch affirmed Saudi Arabia’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating at ‘A+’ with a Stable Outlook.
Saudi Arabia’s Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf) successfully placed 437k citizens in the private sector last year, up 17% YoY.
Global News:
Major equity markets lost ground last week: with the AI-related news early last week and ending with expectations that the Trump tariffs would raise inflation, leading to higher-for-longer rates and lowering economic growth. European stocks however closed at a record high, supported by tech stocks. Regional markets were mixed, with banking stocks supporting gains in UAE. The dollar strengthened ahead of Trump’s threat of tariffs (sending the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso to multi-year lows), the euro declined vis-à-vis the greenback, posting the biggest drop since end-December, and the pound fell (losing more than 7.5% since September’s 2.5 year high and ahead of the BoE meeting this week). Oil prices fell by more than 2% on a weekly basis (with expectation of duties on Canadian oil and ahead of the OPEC+ meeting this week). Safe-haven asset gold saw its price cross USD 2,800 and Bitcoin fell to below USD 100k, its weakest in three weeks.
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SOURCE:
Nasser Saidi & Associates