UAE''s non-oil foreign trade grows by 23 pct 

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) United Arab Emirates (UAE) non-oil foreign trade grew by 23 percent, or 173.3 billion dirhams, in 2011 to reach 927.6 billion dirhams, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

Non-oil foreign trade in 2010 registered 754.4 billion dirhams.
NBS said imports surged to 602.8 billion dirhams in 2011 from 485.4 billion a year before, a rise of 24.2 percent.

Exports, noted NBS, surged by 37.2 percent from 83.1 billion dirhams in 2010 to 114 billion last year. Re-exports increased by 13.4 percent to 210.8 billion dirhams last year from 185.9 billion in 2010.

In terms of imports, East Asian countries emerged as top suppliers with India having the lion share of 17.1 percent. China and US took the second and third place at 10.3 percent and 8.5 percent respectively.

India came in the first place as a key market to UAE non-oil exports accounting for 33.7 percent, followed by Switzerland (16.2 percent) and Saudi Arabia (5.4 percent), said NBS.

India also remained the top market for UAE's re-exports taking 28.1 percent of total re-export goods and commodities. Iran and Iraq came second and third at 17 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.