UAE foreign trade totalled approximately $9.3 trillion over five decades

The total value of the UAE’s foreign trade in the past five decades amounted to around $9.32 trillion, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Additionally, the country’s trade balance from 1971 to 2020 recorded a surplus of nearly $1.3 trillion.

The UNCTAD’s figures also reported that the value of UAE’s foreign trade increased 473 times from $1.15bn in 1971 to $542.02bn by the end of 2020, said state-run news agency WAM.

The cumulative balance of foreign direct investments into the country rose from $7.8m in 1971 to around $20bn by the end of 2020.

The UAE’s foreign trade over the five decades varied between exports by 57 per cent worth $5.3 trillion and imports by 43 per cent, worth $4.01 trillion.

UAE’s exports increased 380 times, rising from $842m in 1971 to $319.3bn by the end 2020.

Imports meanwhile rose 730 times from $309m to $225.7bn at the end of 2020.

According to the figures, the value of foreign trade increased 28 times by the end of the first decade after the formation of the UAE to $32bn, and nearly 33 times by the end of 1991 to $38.2bn, to nearly 74 times by the start of the 2000s to $85.7bn, and to 462 times by the end of the fourth decade to $532bn.

The year 2019 was the best year, in terms of the value of foreign trade, totalling $657.3bn, followed by 2018 with $649.4bn, and 2013 with $644.8bn.

In 2014, the country’s trade was worth $619bn, and in 2012 it reached $616bn.

It is worth noting that the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade grew 27 per cent year-on-year in H1 2021 and also 6 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Read: UAE’s non-oil foreign trade up 27% to Dhs900bn in H1 2021