In its latest World Economic Outlook report published on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased the UAE’s economic growth forecast for 2021 to 3.1 percent, in what is seen as a credit to the country’s positive handling of coronavirus.
While the forecast is up from the 1.2 percent forecasted in October last year, it is expected to soften in 2022, dropping down to 2.6 and stabilising through to 2026, according to the IMF report.
This is in line with what Stephen Anderson, Middle East Strategy and Markets Leader, for PwC Middle East, discussed at the Arabian Business Forum in late February where he said the UAE economy is “moving in such a positive way forward” to become the world’s leading post-Covid-19 economy.
The country has been widely praised for its response to the global pandemic, which initially saw the implementation of strict lockdown measures, before a gradual reopening from May last year.
Anderson agreed that the health response has been “fantastic” and added that the brand of Dubai and the UAE will be “enhanced enormously” as a result of the swift actions taken.
The IMF upgraded its global economic growth forecast for the second time in three months, while warning about widening inequality and a divergence between advanced and lesser-developed economies.
The global economy will expand 6 percent this year, up from the 5.5 percent pace estimated in January, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook published on Tuesday. That would be the most in four decades of data, coming after a 3.3 percent contraction last year that was the worst peacetime decline since the Great Depression.
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