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Dubai Chamber Exports Reach Dh44.1 Billion

Dubai Chamber, in its monthly report, revealed that its members’ exports in January, February and March were at Dh14.5, Dh14.2 and Dh15.4 billion respectively.

The monthly exports indicate an increasing structural trend as the Certificates of Origin issued by the Chamber to its members, showed a surge in exports that began in the later part of 2007 and ran into the most part of 2008.

“The years 2007 and 2008 were exceptional due to high oil prices, especially in 2008, showing a 37 per cent increase, a rate that was comparable to the growth of 38 per cent for annual exports of its members for the same period,” Buamim pointed out. “However, while oil prices had dropped by 51 per cent in 2009, contraction of exports of Dubai Chamber members during the same period was only by 14 per cent, indicating a lower vulnerability of Dubai exports to oil price drop,” he added.

Many of Dubai’s major markets are oil-producing countries in the Middle East that are generally favoured by rising oil prices. The level of the chamber monthly exports also indicated a return to the quadratic pattern over time defined for the earlier period. Predicted value of exports for the quarter based on the trend line fitted was within 6 per cent of the total actual value.

According to the chamber report, in the first quarter of 2009, exports to 25 destinations exceeded Dh100 million each. During the period, the GCC remained the largest market, where exports grew from Dh17 billion in the first quarter of 2007, to Dh22 in 2008, but declining to Dh19 billion in 2009.

· aneela@khaleejtimes.com