Central Bank Governor Abdul Hamid Saeed said that the forecasts for the year 2020 are of course uncertain, as they are controlled by the impact of a global corona epidemic, whether in terms of human life or economic activity.
Emphasizing in the introduction to the annual report of the Central Bank issued yesterday for the year 2019 that the resilience and flexibility of the banking sector will be under testing, so the central bank will continue to play its role in directing the banking sector during this period with proactive intervention from several aspects, including liquidity support, capital adequacy and others One of the measures to relieve pressure in order to ensure our continued assistance and care for the business environment in the country, with a special focus on small and medium enterprises.
The governor added, we adopted digitization as an advanced organizational approach, as one of the most prominent milestones of the year 2019 was the establishment of the Financial Technology Office within our headquarters so that the central bank has the authority to coordinate regarding the regulatory requirements for hedging behavior and markets, indicating that the central bank launched during the year the citizen loans program, which benefited Of that, more than 4000 Emirati citizens since its launch in March of the year 2019 .. "
The Central Bank stated in a report that, in line with the national and economic program of the UAE government, the bank launched in partnership with several national banks and the Emirates Banks Union in 2019 the “citizens’ loan program ”.
This important initiative aims to reduce the burden of debt accumulation and manage debt settlements for Emirati citizens, and since the initiative was launched more than 4,000 Emiratis have already benefited from it, with total disbursed loans amounting to 5.5 billion dirhams and concessions granted amounting to 3.3 billion dirhams. ”
The report indicated that the gross domestic product of the UAE in real prices grew by 1.7% in 2019 due to the growth of the hydrocarbon sector by 3.4% and the non-oil sector by approximately 1%.
The report added that in 2019 the UAE economy witnessed positive developments that affected the labor market, with employment in the private sector increasing 2%, and all sectors witnessed an increase on an annual basis, except for the construction sector, noting that "Dubai acquired 90,216 new permits, or 57.5 % Of total permits.
The report indicated that the total financial transfers for employment amounted to 165.2 billion at the end of last year, compared to 169 billion for the year 2018, a decrease of 4 billion.