The UAE’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose up to Dh1.54 trillion ($419 billion) in 2014 from Dh314.81 billion ($85.7 billion) recorded at the beginning of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, in 2004, a report said.

The country witnessed a transition from an oil based economy to a productive economy with enormous diversity in various fields, according to the report issued by the portal HotelandRest (hotelandrest.com).

The report pointed out that the GDP quintupled during the past ten years and is still undergoing further growth, according to the IMF forecast, GDP will rise in 2018 to a Dh1.74 trillion ($473 billion).

The report said that the UAE's strategy in the past ten years focused on the development of non-oil sectors that recorded the contribution of 69 per cent of the total GDP, so that the contribution of the oil sector dropped to almost one-third.

The report said that the UAE has achieved the tenth place internationally as per capita income index, as the national savings rate of GDP rose during 2014 to a rate of 32.9 per cent, which is largest savings rate in the world, surpassing most of the major economies such as Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Canada and others.

In terms of national per capita gross income, the report predicted that the UAE will become one of the top 10 countries in the world by 2020, noting that the country currently holds the 16th place.

Highlighting the travel and tourism sector, the report stressed that the UAE will be one of the best countries in the world in terms of attracting tourists due to its superiority over most of the other countries in the tourism infrastructure.

The report is based on a recent research by the World Council of Travel and Tourism, which expected that travel and tourism sector will contribute to about Dh122 billion ($33 billion)to UAE’s GDP, approximately 8.5 per cent during 2014, representing an annual increase of 4.5 per cent when compared to 2013. – TradeArabia News Service