Dubai’s economic expansion hinges on retail, tourism

Dubai is looking to retail and tourism to break free of its weakest economic expansion in almost a decade. Growth in the city’s gross domestic product is set to accelerate to 2.1 percent in 2019 and 3.8 percent the following year before slowing to 2.8 percent in 2021, according to projections released on Sunday by the emirate’s department of economic development. GDP expanded only 1.9 percent in 2018, substantially below forecasts made by the International Monetary Fund. A turnaround for the economy is riding on a better performance for industries other than Dubai’s bellwether real estate sector, with improvements seen this year and next for finance, tourism as well as retail and wholesale.