Per capita income in the United Arab Emirates rose to 91,000 dirhams in 2004 compared with 81,000 dirhams in 2003, according to Abdullah Sultan, Secretary-General of the Federation of the UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Sultan attributed the impressive increase despite the relatively high growth in population to high oil prices and a 16 percent increase in gross domestic product. Sultan also told a UAE-German Economic Forum in the German city of Essen that the UAE's GDP last year exceeded 340 billion dirhams reflecting a 4.7 percent increase over the previous year and inflation stabilized at 4.5 percent. The country's population rose to 4.32 million from 4.04 millon in 2003. "Trade between the UAE and Germany rose to 18.53 billion dirhams in 2004, including 3.54 billion euros worth of German exports to the UAE, and 323 million euros worth of UAE exports to Germany, a 38.9 percent increase," Sultan was quoted as saying by Arab News. Addressing the same forum, Abdul Rahman G. Al-Muttaiwee, the head of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Dubai is now the world's third largest re-exporter after Hong Kong and Singapore and it handles about 73 percent of the UAE's total foreign trade. Dubai's total imports reached around 125 billion dirhams, and 72 percent of these imports were re-exported to 160 countries.
