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The United Arab Emirates' economy grew 1.7 percent in 2018, picking up pace on the back of higher oil prices but falling short of expectations.
Growth was 0.8 percent in 2017 and had been forecast to accelerate to 2.9 percent last year, according to data on Bloomberg.
Higher oil and gas income was one of the main drivers of overall growth, Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri was cited as saying by the state-run WAM news agency. The sector contributed to 25.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
GDP at constant prices was around 1.44 trillion dirhams ($392 billion), compared with 1.41 trillion dirhams a year earlier, WAM reported on Saturday, citing preliminary 2018 data.
Read: Dubai's Long-Awaited Stats Showed Weakest Economy Since 2010
Last week, the Dubai statistics center said the emirate's GDP grew 1.9 percent in 2018, the slowest since 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story: Abeer Abu Omar in Dubai at aabuomar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Claudia Maedler
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