Companies in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) saw their gross domestic product drop by 2.4 per cent in 2009 to US$2.8 billion, compared to the year before, officials said.
The modest decline proves the "resiliency" of the centre during the global financial crisis, said Nasser al Saidi, the chief economist of the DIFC.
The statistics were revealed in the DIFC Economic Activity 2009 report, which was based on a survey by the centre completed by 406 companies or about 57.5 per cent of the registered companies at the end of 2009.
The results show that while the public entities that run the DIFC and the banking sector saw their income decline during the crisis by 15.2 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively, professional service industries such as law firms and accountants saw a 24.8 per cent increase in their income, the report said.
DIFC was responsible for 3.8 per cent of Dubai's 2009 GDP and 1.1 per cent of the UAE's overall GDP, Dr Saidi said.
The report comes just a week after the DIFC cut the rental rate for offices in the centre by more than 50 per cent for some tenants with a new sliding scale of rates that are adjusted according to the amount of space offered. The DIFC is enacting a new strategy to promote the centre as the ideal hub for international businesses serving the Middle East, Africa and south Asia.
bhope@thenational.ae