UAE Economic Stability: Second in the World, Behind Only Switzerland
An international stability study ranks the UAE second worldwide, ahead of Canada, Germany and Japan. GDP per capita rivals Western Europe, and the country’s sovereign wealth funds hold trillions of dirhams in assets.
An international study of economic stability places the UAE second in the world, behind only Switzerland. The rest of the top ten is filled out by leading North American, European and Asian economies.
What the ranking measures
- Entrepreneurship and ease of doing business.
- Access to capital.
- Availability of a skilled workforce.
- Economic adaptability and competitiveness.
- A developed trading environment.
The study separately notes that GDP per capita in the UAE is comparable to leading Western European economies, and that the country holds the status of the most competitive economy in the Arab world.
A factor these rankings rarely capture
Sovereign wealth funds. The UAE is home to some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds — the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala, Dubai's own investment corporation, Dubai World, ADQ and others. Together they hold assets worth trillions of dirhams.
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The practical implication for real estate is direct: development programmes — islands, cultural clusters, transport, airports — are funded not from the current budget or from sales, but from capital built up over decades. That is precisely why master plans here keep moving forward even through an unfavourable cycle.
How to read rankings like this
As a description of the operating environment, not as an argument for a specific deal. A country's economic stability explains why capital keeps arriving and why the population keeps growing — it does not guarantee the return on your particular apartment. The two levels of decision are worth keeping separate.
Based on an international economic stability study and public data on the assets of UAE sovereign wealth funds.
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