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The UAE market is best read through domestic liquidity, real estate and banking, and the broader role of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as regional hubs for trade, tourism, and capital allocation. The cleanest read usually comes from oil-linked liquidity support, property and banking strength, and whether international capital continues to treat the UAE as a regional safe-growth hub.
Regional map
Start here
You do not need a finance background. Start with the essentials, then go deeper only where useful.
Use the key figures to see the country’s size, currency and current economic backdrop.
Pick one variable at a time and see how it has changed over time.
The final cards explain the few forces that can move companies and the local market.
Key facts
Capital
Currency
Primary exchange
Central bank
Region
Time zone
Country dashboard
A Gulf hub market shaped by oil-linked liquidity, property, banking, and cross-border capital flows.
Macro explorer
Click an indicator to open a focused read instead of scanning every card at once.
Annual real GDP growth from World Bank national accounts.
Available variables
Trade and external position
The latest available data show exports of $558.4B and imports of $481.9B, leaving an external balance of +$76.5B. Services account for 32.5% of total exports.
This is the broadest external-demand read for United Arab Emirates, because it combines merchandise shipments with cross-border services such as travel, transport, finance, and business services.
This is the merchandise side of the export machine for United Arab Emirates, useful for judging industrial, energy, and manufacturing exposure in the trade mix.
This shows how much United Arab Emirates monetizes travel, logistics, finance, software, licensing, and other non-merchandise external flows.
Trade partners
Commodity lens
Trade in goods and services equaled 199.0% of GDP in 2023. This is a quick read on how externally exposed the economy is.
Services represented 32.5% of total exports in the latest reading, which helps show whether the export mix leans more toward intangibles or merchandise.
Manufactures accounted for 8.8% of merchandise exports in 2023.
Fuel exports accounted for 68.2% of merchandise exports in 2023, useful for reading commodity exposure.
Food exports accounted for 2.9% of merchandise exports in 2023, adding context on agricultural exposure.
Source: World Bank API: totalExports,
What to watch
United Arab Emirates should first be read through regional hub activity. When this regime shifts, local how highly shares are valued and sector leadership usually shift with it.
The cleanest read usually comes from oil-linked liquidity support, property and banking strength, and whether international capital continues to treat the UAE as a regional safe-growth hub. That makes property and banking one of the most important signals for revising the country narrative.
The final layer is oil-linked liquidity, because it determines whether the macro backdrop turns into sustainable profits support for the FTSE ADX General.
Other countries
Each card opens the same country template with its own map, switchable macro variables, and benchmark view. This is the first linked network of country pages across the region.
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Middle East
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Middle East
A high-beta market where inflation, rates, FX credibility, banks, and exporters all collide in the valuation story.
Real GDP growth
What This Signals
GDP growth is published quarterly and annualized, so each point captures how fast real output was expanding or contracting versus the prior quarter at an annual rate. It matters because it is the broadest scorecard of domestic economic momentum and sets the backdrop for revenues, employment, and policy expectations. Versus a year ago, the series is lower by 7.2%, which points to a softer or less supportive backdrop on this measure. Across the displayed window, the broader trend is still upward.