UAE Economy Set to Soar: World Bank Predicts 4.1% GDP Growth in 2025

The United Arab Emirates stands ready for robust economic expansion, latest semi-annual MENA Economic Update has indicated. The global report entitled “Growth in the Middle East and North Africa” has predicted that the UAE’s GDP will grow by 3.3% in 2024 and 4.1% in the following year. This growth path puts the UAE in a frontier status within the region and the expected real GDP per capita growth rates of 2.5% in 2024 and 3.4% in 2025. The strong growth rate is largely blamed to the country’s non-oil sector showcasing the effectiveness of ongoing diversification measures.

UAE Economic Outlook: Surpluses and Growth

The World Bank report seems quite optimistic about the future of the UAE economy. Even if there is a marginal decline in the current account surplus from 9.2 % of GDP in 2023 to 7.5 % in 2024, The World Bank projects the UAE to maintain fiscal surpluses. Predictions show that fiscal balances are expected to be at 4.9% of the GDP in 2024 and 4.7% of the GAP in 2025, which will testify to the financial strength of the UAE despite the troubled global economy.

The UAE’s economy is not an isolated case in the region and for the MENA region, it is expected to grow by 3.8% in 2025. Growth in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is expected to improve significantly to 4.2% in 2025 from 1.9% in 2024. This is even though the regional growth outlook for the GCC appears more favorable than the anticipated growth rates for developing oil exporters and importers in the region.

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Regional Economic Landscape

If the UAE leads in growth projections it is important to note that the larger MENA region has an uneven economic picture. The world bank expects total GDP growth rate of the region to increase slightly to 2.2 percent in 2024 from 1.8 percent in 2023. Nevertheless, it is envisaged that growth might slow down in the non-GCC countries; the growth of oil importing countries might slow down and growth of the non-GCC oil exporting countries might decline.