The UAE
is considered to have the 28th freest economy in the world but I wanted
to look at the overall economic freedom and sub categories because the UAE and
Dubai, from an outsider’s perspective, seems that they have more
economic freedom than the United States. The following results prove my perspective
to be wrong. The data I have collected categorizes countries that are: under the 50th percentile to be considered as being suppressed, under the 60th percentile to be mostly unfree,
under the 70th percentile to be moderately free, under the 80th
percentile to mostly free, and over the 80th percentile to be free.
UAE
Currency: Emirati Dirham or AED
Value compared to dollar: $1 = 3.7 AED
Economic
Freedom: UAE at
71.1% vs. USA at 76%
Business
Freedom: UAE at 74% vs. USA at 90.5%
Trade
Freedom: UAE at 82.6% vs. USA at 86.4%
Investment
Freedom: UAE at 35%
vs. USA at 70%
Fiscal
Freedom: UAE 99.9% vs. USA
at 69.3%
Government
Spending: UAE 85.1% vs. USA
at 47.8%
Labor
Freedom: UAE 77.6% vs. USA
at 95.5%
Overall
Economy Basic Statistics
Population:
5.4 million
GDP: $258.8
billion
GDP
growth: 4.9%
Per
Capita: $48,158
Unemployment:
12.9%
Dubai
GDP: $44 billion
GDP growth: 4.1%
Debt: $50 billion
Expected Debt 2013:
$9.8 billion
Tourism Sector: 13%
increase
