Abu Dhabi's nominal economic output rose 15.9 percent in 2010, after shrinking nearly a quarter in the previous year, helped by recovery in its key hydrocarbon sector, the Gulf Arab emirate's preliminary data showed on Sunday.
The United Arab Emirates member, which sits on 10 percent of global oil reserves and accounts for 90 percent of UAE oil output, felt the pinch of the global financial crisis in 2009 after crude prices tumbled from 2008 record highs.
With an oil price recovery in 2010, the crude-reliant Abu Dhabi economy picked up speed again to see its nominal gross domestic product rise to 620.3 billion dirhams ($169 billion), Abu Dhabi Statistics Centre's (SCAD) yearbook showed.
However, Abu Dhabi's GDP, which makes up 57 percent of the UAE economy, is still below the 705.2 billion dirhams seen in the oil and property-boom year of 2008. "High oil prices and government stimulus spending should ensure relatively strong nominal GDP growth for 2011, alongside the 'safe haven' effect from the first quarter," said Liz Martins, senior MENA economist at HSBC in Dubai.
"However, our PMI survey suggests that momentum may be on the wane in the private sector." The statistics office did not release real GDP data for Abu Dhabi, whose performance had suffered from last year's debt troubles in neighbouring trade and business hub Dubai.
The UAE, the second-largest Arab economy and the world's No 4 oil exporter, booked real GDP growth of 1.4 percent in 2010 after a 1.6 percent contraction in the previous year.
UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri reiterated on Sunday his June 3-3.5 percent forecast for the country's GDP growth, saying the outcome depended on oil price moves and that the risk of another global recession was a worry.
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