Non-oil trade in the United Arab Emirates reached 534.1 billion dirhams ($145.4 billion) in the first half of this year.
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This is up from 521.8 billion dirhams ($142 billion) in H1 2014, a 2.36% increase, the country's Federal Customs Authority (FCA) reported.
The UAE imported 337.6 billion dirhams ($92 billion) worth of goods in H1 2015, and 340.6 billion dirhams ($92.7 billion) in H1 2014, a decline of less than 1%. Gold and gold objects were the most imported items, accounting for 15% of total imports, or 50.7 billion dirhams ($13.8 billion), according to the FCA.
The second most imported product category was vehicles at 7.3%, followed by diamonds at 6.5%, cell phones at 5%, and ornaments, jewelry and other precious metals at 4%.
Conversely, the UAE's non-oil exports stood at 81.4 billion dirhams ($22.16 billion) in H1 2015, up 28%.
Here, gold also tops the list at 35% of overall exports, followed by raw aluminium at 11%, jewelry and ornaments at 9%, ethylene polymers in their primary forms, at 4% and copper wire at 2%.
“The UAE non-oil foreign trade has significantly grown over the last years in light of the increasing economic growth of the UAE supported by the flexible trade policy adopted by the government,” WAM quoted FCA director Ali Al Kaabi as saying.
Re-exports grossed 115.2 billion dirhams ($31.36 billion) in H1, down 2% from a year ago.
Diamonds topped re-exports with a 21% share, followed by jewelry and ornaments with 9.9%, automobiles with 9.8%, mobile phones with 6% and aircraft parts with 2%.
According to FCA, countries in Asia, Oceania and the Pacific are the UAE's primary non-oil trading partners, retaining a combined 42% share of total trade.
Next come Europe at 25%, the Middle East and Africa at 17%, the Americas at 10%, Central and Western Africa at 4% and Eastern and Southern Africa at 3%. ■
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