Total of 537,000 business licenses issued by end of October

A total of 537,000 business activity licenses has been issued by the end of October 2018, 1 percent up from August of the same year, according to the Ministry of Economy's statistics.

The growth reflects the economic uplift recorded since the beginning of the year, with the Central Bank of the UAE forecasting real GDP to hit 2.4 percent in 2018, the highest since 2016, driven by a projected growth of 3.7 percent in the non-oil sector.

Dubai and Sharjah accounted for 85.5 percent of the total licenses issued by the end of October, according to the Ministry's statistics, with Dubai issuing 251,629 and Sharjah 80,754 thereof.

In Abu Dhabi, a total of 124,659 licenses has been issued by the Department of Economic Development, 78,518 of which for individual institutions.

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