Dubai's non-oil direct trade touches AED 231 billion in 9 months

A report compiled by Dubai World's Department of Statistics attributed the increase to general cross-sector growth in the economy, and particularly in the real estate market.

That strong performance spurred healthy development in many other sectors such as tourism, commerce, industry and services.

Adel Al Ashram, Senior Manager, Statistics, Dubai World, said, "Statistics compiled since the beginning of this year until the end of September showed that imports formed the largest part of Dubai's non-oil foreign trade. They reached AED 158.78 billion, with diamonds, precious stones, semi-precious stones and precious metals topping the sector list with imports worth AED 34.46 billion. Industrial equipment, machinery, electronics and spare parts accounted for AED 20.44 billion of imports, followed by the automotive industry AED 16.02 billion.'

According to Mr Al Ashram, the re-export trade recorded transactions worth AED 59.43 billion, diamonds, precious stones and precious metals headed the re-export list with trade worth AED 19.19 billion, followed by electrical equipment and machinery where its transaction valued at AED 8.39 billion, whist the boilers & machineries attained an AED 6.11 billion mark.

The diamonds, precious stones and precious metals trade also led the export list recording transaction valued at AED 3.23 billion, followed by aluminum and related products at AED 1.93 billion, and sugar and confectionery items fetched AED 860 million in export orders.

Mr Al Ashram said, "Our findings place China with exports worth AED 19.80 billion at the top of the pile of exporters to Dubai, followed by India (AED 17.10 billion. Other major exporter to Dubai are the US (AED 11.50 billion), Germany (AED 11.14 billion), and Japan (AED 10.66 billion)."

The re-export business remains dominated by Iran recording a figure of AED 10.54 billion, followed by India (AED 8.56 billion), Switzerland (AED 6.05 billion), Iraq (AED 4.20 billion) and Pakistan (AED 2 billion).

India was Dubai's top export destination with transaction worth AED 3.43 billion, ahead of Pakistan (AED 1.01 billion), Iran (AED 649 million) , the US (AED 518 million) and Kuwait (AED 483 million).