According to a senior official, although the UAE imports food, its inflation rate is lower than the global average.
The nation has a system to regulate prices, particularly for staple foods. According to Abdullah Ahmed Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy, the government monitors consumer goods prices worldwide. It analyzes them locally to ensure prices don’t rise against the trend and protect consumers.
The local (UAE) inflation rate is lower than the global average. Over the past three years, local inflation has increased by 2.2% on average annually, whereas worldwide inflation, particularly for food goods, has risen by 5% to 6%, Al Saleh told Khaleej Times in an interview.
Given that the UAE imports a lot of food, he claimed that increased shipping costs, worldwide geopolitical unrest, and natural disasters all have an effect on local prices.
To ensure that there isn’t a local market upswing that contradicts the global price trend, he continued, “we keep an eye on all these increases in the international markets and compare the trend in the local market.”
The ‘World Economic Outlook’ published in October by the International Monetary Fund projects that global headline inflation would average 5.8% in 2024 and 4.3% in 2025, following an average of 6.7% in 2023. In contrast, inflation in the United Arab Emirates is predicted to be 2.3% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025.
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