RIYADH: The UAE witnessed a 32 percent rise in revenue growth in 2022, the government’s finance ministry has disclosed. According to a press release, the country achieved a fiscal surplus for the year 2022, allowing substantial buffers to mitigate potential financial risks. Even though the statement did not divulge the full-year fiscal surplus figure, the Central Bank of the UAE revealed in May that the country surplus hit $46 billion in the first nine months of 2022, supported by strong oil and non-oil revenue growth and high oil prices. The minister added that the UAE’s spending increased by 6.1 percent to about 427.12 billion dirhams ($116 billion). The statement added that despite the increase in revenues, the UAE has maintained a cautious and rational spending policy. “Through balanced fiscal planning, the UAE government aims to diversify the local economy, enhance non-oil government revenues, and diversify sources of government revenues, in addition to adopting financial reforms to improve the business environment and attract valuable foreign investments,” said Mohamed bin Hadi Al-Hussaini, UAE’s minister of state for financial affairs, in the release. He added: “The government also seeks to increase spending effectiveness by keeping pace with institutional developments and adopting best practices. The government’s implementation of the vision of the wise leadership has resulted in the recovery of the national economy and return to normal growth in the post-pandemic era.” The announcement added that growth in acquisitions of non-financial assets almost doubled, up 94.5 percent in 2022. The UAE government noted that the country witnessed an increase in tax revenues in 2022, driven by streamlining and digitizing procedures which contributed to improving the efficiency of collection of the levies. Other revenues also grew by 19.3 billion dirhams in 2022, while social contributions increased from 13.55 billion dirhams in 2021 to 14.92 billion dirhams in 2022. The prospects for 2023 also seem brighter as the World Bank expects the real gross domestic product of the UAE to grow by 2.8 percent in 2023, as the non-oil sector is expected to achieve substantial growth of 4.8 percent, driven by robust domestic demand, particularly in tourism, real estate, construction, transportation and manufacturing sectors.