The end of the year is the time to sit back and relax. Enjoy the time with your family. Especially if you’ve been working hard all year round.

It’s also the time for annual performance reports.

And according to the Brand Finance Report 2022, the UAE has been working really hard this year. It got ranked #1 globally in brand performance, with a score of 80.5 out of 100.

Congratulations!

What is Brand Finance Report

Brand Finance is the world’s leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy from the UK, which helps companies to measure, manage, maximize and monitor the value of their brands to drive business performance.

The Brand Finance Report measures the brand strength of a nation based on 3 components:

  • investment
  • perception 
  • performance

The brand performance pillar takes into account how well the nation brand is performing compared with its competitors, its macroeconomic standing, and 4 key business areas where the nation brand has the most influence: 

  • trade
  • investment 
  • tourism 
  • talent

Brand Finance Report in Details

According to the report, a successful COVID-19 response, which allowed the UAE to open for business sooner than many other destinations, is one of the key drivers of the UAE’s impressive results this year. 

The UAE was named by the report a “positive exception” as brand performance has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic levels for most nations in the ranking. 

The UAE has attracted a higher volume of trade, investment, tourism, and talent than other national brands. 

Within these areas, the UAE economy has rebounded strongly on the back of the:

  • tourism 
  • a buoyant property sector
  • higher oil prices

Let’s look at the numbers:

  • Over Dh1 trillion ($272 billion) — the country’s foreign trade for the first 6 months of this year, compared with Dh 840bn for the same period before the pandemic.
  • Up 116 % — increase in foreign direct investment in the UAE in the past decade, rising to $20.7bn in 2021 from $9.6bn in 2012, according to government data. 
  • 76.7 out of 100 — the UAE has defended its brand perceptions position as the strongest in the Middle East and Africa.
  • US$773 billion — the UAE has been proclaimed the most valuable nation brand in the Middle East and Africa.

More Positive Economy Facts

1. The UAE economy is expected to grow by 5.4% and 4.2% in 2022 and 2023, respectively, after expanding by 3.8% in 2021, according to the UAE Central Bank. 


2. Emirates NBD raised its economic growth forecast for the UAE to 7% for 2022, due to a higher estimate for the energy industry’s output and the “robust growth” of its non-oil sector, setting up the country for its fastest annual expansion in more than a decade. 

3.The latest revision from Dubai’s biggest lender compares with an earlier 5.7% estimate and would be the highest since 2011 when the economy grew by 6.9%.