Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has approved the National Programme for Developing the Statistics System in the UAE.
The programme seeks to improve the quality of official economic statistics, respond to changes in the economy and support the UAE’s position among the world’s economies.
It will introduce 2024 as the base year for national accounts and reconstruct the UAE’s gross domestic product time series covering 2010 to 2026.
The review is intended to provide a fuller account of the size, composition and growth of the economy. It will also seek to improve the reliability of official statistics and allow comparisons with data from other countries.
The resulting data will support economic decisions, policy development and planning. It is also expected to support confidence among investors and financial and economic institutions and contribute to the UAE’s role in the world economy.
2024 set as base year for national accounts
A base year provides the reference point used to measure changes in economic output, prices and the structure of an economy.
Under the programme, the UAE will use 2024 as the base year for its national accounts and revise GDP data for each year from 2010 to 2026.
The work will take account of changes in the structure of the economy during the period. These include growth in non-oil activities and expansion in services, the digital economy, technology and investment.
The programme will also use administrative records that have become available through systems including corporate tax and value-added tax.
The use of these records is intended to expand coverage of economic activities and improve the measurement of their contribution to the economy.
GDP review to follow UN accounting system
The programme establishes a framework for updating and harmonising national accounts across the UAE.
The work will follow the United Nations System of National Accounts, together with statistical standards and recommendations used by statistics authorities in other countries.
Implementation will include updating the base year, adding data sources and increasing the integration of administrative records.
The aim is to produce economic indicators with greater accuracy, consistency and transparency while maintaining comparability with statistics produced under recognised accounting frameworks.
The programme also sets a commitment to update the base year at intervals in line with statistical practice.
A methodology for reviewing GDP data will be applied across the country. This is intended to support the development of the statistics system and its response to changes in economic activity.
Updates will follow recognised methodological frameworks and will depend on the readiness and availability of data in the UAE. This process is intended to maintain the quality and comparability of official statistics.
National accounts review reflects changes in data
The National Programme for Developing the Statistics System includes a review of the UAE’s national accounts.
Statistics authorities conduct such reviews as economies change, measurement methods develop and more data sources become available.
The review seeks to improve GDP measurement by incorporating changes in methodology and data coverage and by reflecting the country’s economic growth.
It will examine the way activities are classified, measured and included in national accounts, with attention to sectors that have expanded or changed since the start of the revised series in 2010.
FCSC to lead implementation
The programme will be implemented through a partnership led by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, the body responsible for unifying official statistics across the UAE.
The centre will coordinate with statistics centres in the emirates and with federal bodies that provide data as part of the statistics system.
The arrangement is intended to integrate the roles of participating bodies and unify the data sources used in the preparation of economic statistics.
Bodies taking part include the Central Bank of the UAE, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Authority, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, the Emirates Investment Authority and Etihad Water and Electricity Company.
Other entities will also contribute data to the programme.
Information from the participating bodies will form an economic database to support the reconstruction of the GDP series and provide more detail on economic activity between 2010 and 2026.
Programme covers laws, institutions and technology
The National Programme for Developing the Statistics System will serve as the framework for changes to the UAE’s statistics system.
It includes legislative, institutional and technical measures covering the production, management and publication of statistics.
The package includes the review of GDP, a strategy for the statistics system and policies governing statistical work.
It also includes a platform for statistical data, a programme for developing statistics leaders and the “UAE Principles for Official Statistics” document.
These measures are intended to support economic decisions and the production of statistics across government entities.
The programme also seeks to support the UAE’s competitiveness and its role as a model for the development and production of official economic statistics.
