Abu Dhabi, Jul 26th, 2011 (WAM)--xxxx. Activities. Despite the importance of oil to the economy of Abu Dhabi, the Emirate pursues an ambitious policy that seeks to expand and diversify the economy in order to fortify it against volatile oil prices.

In this regard, it can be seen from the results set forth in the Abu Dhabi Statistical Yearbook 2011 that oil accounted for only 49.7 percent of the GDP of the Abu Dhabi in 2010. This result confirms that the Emirates programmes to expand the economic base and diversify the sources of income are progressing successfully and in line with the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030.

On the other hand non-oil activities/sectors contributed 50.3 percent of the emirates GDP, achieving a relatively high growth rate of 5.6 percent during 2010.

Preliminary data on the GDP of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi over the past year included in the Statistical Yearbook indicate that all the activities and economic sectors achieved positive growth rates at varying degrees in 2010, most notably the mining and quarrying activity, which grew by 28.9 per cent, fuelled by the sharp rise in oil prices in world markets.

The financial corporations sector also recorded a high growth rate (14.4 per cent), while manufacturing grew by 10.8 per cent, real estate and business services by 6.4 per cent, wholesale and retail trade and repair services by 5.3 per cent and hotels and restaurants by 4.6 per cent.

Furthermore, non-oil sectors and activities achieved positive growth rates, ranging from 1.3 per cent for the transport, storage and communications to 2.2 per cent in agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

Foreign trade is an important component of Abu Dhabi economy. The volume of the merchandise foreign trade of Abu Dhabi was worth 23.7 per cent of the Emirates GDP in 2009, reflecting the Emirates robust and highly developed level of commercial activity and the significance of foreign trade for the Emirates economy in general. The new issue of Abu Dhabi Statistical Yearbook reveals that the total value of the commodity exports of Abu Dhabi in 2009 were equivalent to 41.2 percent of the GDP for that year, while imports were worth 17.5 percent of the GDP in 2009.

According to the yearbook, the total value of commodity imports to Abu Dhabi in 2010 amounted to AED 86.6 billion, the main imports being machinery and transport equipment, which accounted for 52.3 per cent of imports. The top supplier was USA, from which the Emirate received imports worth AED 11.8 billion. Total non-oil exports amounted to AED 11.6 billion, with the key goods being machinery and transport equipment, which constituted 53.8 per cent of the total non-oil exports. Brazil was the top destination of Abu Dhabi non-oil exports, receiving goods worth AED 2.8 billion in 2010.

In 2010 re-exported goods worth AED 11 billion. The top category was machinery and transport equipment, which made up 65.5 per cent of total re-exports. The Kingdom of Bahrain was the top destination of Abu Dhabis re-exports, receiving goods valued at AED 3.6 billion.

The largest volume of foreign trade was exchanged with Asian countries, which supplied Abu Dhabi with imports worth AED 38.4 billion and received from the Emirate non-oil exports valued at AED 5.5 billion and re-exports worth AED 10.1 billion.

SCADs yearbook included statistics and indices on the levels of consumer and wholesale prices in the local market, in addition to the consumer price index (CPI), and inflation rates. Statistics Centre- Abu Dhabi collects these prices from the markets of Abu Dhabi periodically.

Price statistics are normally represented by price indices, which are among the most important statistical indicators produced by statistics bureaus. One of the key price indices issued by the Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi is the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) with 2007 as a base year. A price index is a measure the average change in the prices of goods and services between two periods of time: a reference period called the base period, against which the prices of another period(s) known as the comparison period(s) are measured.

Annual and monthly inflation rates can be calculated using estimates of the CPI. According to CPI calculations for the period under review, the inflation rate in 2010 was at 3.06%, which means that consumer prices grew by 3.06 percent in 2010.

The "Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels" group and the "Food and non-alcoholic beverages" group contributed 55.4 per cent and 36.8 per cent of total inflation in 2010, while the "Clothing and footwear" group detracted 28 per cent from total inflation during the aforesaid period, reflecting a drop of 8.3 per cent in the average prices of this group, due to a fall in the prices of the "Clothing" and "Footwear" subgroups by 6.9 percent and 22.7 percent, respectively.

Abu Dhabi Statistical Yearbook monitors the growing role of financial intermediation, setting forth the key indicators of this activity and including statistics from the Survey of Banks and Financial Establishments run by SCAD, in addition to the main performance indicators of the Abu Dhabi Securities Market. The book provides data on the financial intermediation and insurance activity, which contributed approximately 5.6 of the emirates GDP in 2009. In the securities market, the value of shares traded had been making steady gains prior to 2009, achieving AED 34.6 billion in 2010. Furthermore, the market capitalization of the shares traded remained unaffected, reaching AED 294.6 billion and AED 283.9 billion in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In 2010 66 listed companies were trading in the Abu Dhabi Securities Market.

SCADs Yearbook - 2011 also presents statistics on labour compensations. These include the salaries and wages of employees and their benefits in cash and in kind. The compensation received by workers in all economic activities rose 9.1 percent to AED 117.4 billion in 2010. Employees in the non-financial corporations sector received the largest share (73.9 percent) of workers compensations in 2010.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2011.