ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) cabinet has approved the country’s deficit-less AED49 billion ($13.35 billion) budget for fiscal year 2014-15.
UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who also rules Dubai, said that the approved budget was 6.5 per cent more than the previous budget, adding that 49pc of total budget had been allocated for just uplift projects, while $5.45 billion was allocated for government affairs.
The budget does not include huge oil revenues and is mainly focused on administrative spending, public services, and wages for federal employees.
With crude oil reserves estimated at 97.8 billion barrels, mostly in Abu Dhabi, the UAE pumps out around 2.7 million barrels per day. It has a population of about eight million people, more than 80 percent of them expatriates.