(Bloomberg) — Dubai is looking to retail and tourism to break free of its weakest economic expansion in almost a decade.
Growth in the city’s gross domestic product is set to accelerate to 2.1 percent in 2019 and 3.8 percent the following year before slowing to 2.8 percent in 2021, according to projections released on Sunday by the emirate’s department of economic development.
GDP expanded only 1.9 percent in 2018, substantially below forecasts made by the International Monetary Fund.
Read: Dubai’s Long-Awaited Stats Showed Weakest Economy Since 2010
A turnaround for the economy is riding on a better performance for industries other than Dubai’s bellwether real estate sector, with improvements seen this year and next for finance, tourism as well as retail and wholesale.
The emirate’s 2020 World Expo will contribute 22.7 billion dirhams ($6.2 billion) to the economy during the fair next year and another 62.2 billion dirhams after it’s over, according to auditing firm Ernst & Young LLP.
“Economic momentum has picked up at the beginning of this year with a surge in new business licenses and improved optimism on jobs and business performance,” the department said in its statement.
Read: Dubai’s Economy Explained in Five Charts
Growth in financial services is expected to speed up to 2.4 percent in 2019 from last year’s 0.6 percent Real estate, which has struggled with declines in prices, is one of the few sectors not projected to accelerate further after the expo. The industry’s expansion will slow this year to 3.7 percent from 7 percent in 2018.
