ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2020) A UAE newspaper has said that data presents reality business and the broader economy rely on numbers crunched by economists and financial analysts for an assessment of the current state of affairs and a broader understanding of what the future holds.
"And in the UAE, the numbers are looking good," said Khaleej Times in its today's editorial, adding that there is optimism in plenty and sound reasons to cheer as the quarterly economic review of the UAE Central Bank says the country grew at 2.9 percent in 2019, which is higher than its own estimate of 2.3 percent. This is also way higher than the projections of the International Monetary Fund, which expected the UAE to grow at 1.6 percent.
The paper continued, "The fact that this growth rate is being propelled by activity in both the non-oil sector as well as in the oil sector is significant. The growth this year is pegged at 2.5 percent and would be largely propelled by government investments made in massive projects such as Expo2020. These should quell any doubts of a slowdown in the emirates and encourage investment activity.
"Another key point in the central bank review has been the rate of employment. Despite news of redundancies in the financial sector that have been making headlines recently, the central bank has said there is an uptick up in the rate of employment in the private sector by 2 percent.
"The quarterly review is certainly positive, but how much and how quickly it will lift sentiment is something that we have to wait and watch.
"The central bank's figures show the UAE can come up trumps despite a global slowdown," said the editorial comment, adding that the UAE has shown remarkable resilience and agility to chart its unique growth path and face challenges that come its way.
