Dubai 2020 budget sets record spending to boost growth, support Expo 2020
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum also adopted a three-year budget cycle from 2020 to 2022 with total expenditure of 196 billion dirhams
The Dubai government will spend a record 66.4 billion dirhams ($18.1 billion) in 2020 as part of its budget, hiking outlays to stimulate the economy and support the Expo 2020 world fair, state news agency WAM tweeted.
The figure is higher than the 56.8 billion dirhams budgeted in 2019, which was a marginal increase from 2018, according to its budget plan last year.
Dubai, which is hosting the Expo 2020 from October, had earlier projected its economy will grow 3.2 percent in 2020, faster than the 2.1 percent growth in 2019.
Dubai - with a diversified trade and tourism economy and one of the seven territories of the United Arab Emirates - is banking on Expo 2020 to boost economic activity as the event, organisers say, could attract 11 million foreign visitors.
Dubai has faced a real estate market downturn since prices peaked in 2014, following a recovery in the aftermath of a property crash in 2009.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum also adopted a three-year budget cycle from 2020 to 2022 with total expenditure of 196 billion dirhams, the Dubai Media Office said in a separate tweet.
($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirham)
