UAE Government revenue increases by 26% in 2021

Abu Dhabi, The Gulf Observer: The UAE Ministry of Finance (MoF) released the preliminary government finance statistics data for year 2021, in accordance with the criteria of the Government Finance Statistics Manual issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This comes in line with the Open Data Policy set by the UAE on Tuesday.

During 2021, the revenues at the federal level increased by 26 percent, from AED367.9 billion in 2020 to AED463.9 billion in 2021. Social contributions also rose by 5 percent from AED12.9 billion in 2020 to AED13.5 billion in 2021, Emirates News Agency reported.

The value of other revenues (including interests received, dividends, rents, sales of goods and services, fines, penalties, and other transfers) increased by 24 percent from AED203.8 billion in 2020 to AED251.8 billion in 2021.

Additionally, expenditures saw a 1 percent increase from AED399.5 billion in 2020 to AED402.4 billion in 2021. On the other hand, capital expenditures decreased by 57 percent from AED46.5 billion in 2020 to AED20.0 billion in 2021.

Current expenses increased by 8 percent from AED353.0 billion in 2020 to AED382.4 billion in 2021. This includes workers’ compensation, use of goods and services, consumption of fixed capital, interest paid, subsidies, grants, social benefits, and other transfers.

In terms of net lending / borrowing, the results showed a significant increase at the federal level; while the results for 2020 showed a deficit of AED31.7 billion, it achieved a surplus of AED61.5 billion in 2021.

Net lending / borrowing measures governments’ ability to lend or their need to borrow, and is considered an indicator of the financial impact of government activity on the economy.