Middle East & North Africa · GDP rank #25

United Arab Emirates

AE · AED @ 0.2723/USD

The UAE has built the most ambitious state-led payments programme in the Gulf — Aani instant payments live since 2023 (12.5m users by May 2026), Jaywan domestic card scheme past 10m cards ahead of mandated targets, Digital Dirham retail launched March 2026, and CBUAE remains an active mBridge participant. The 88% non-citizen labour-force structure makes outbound remittance — US$45.5bn in 2024, largely to India, Pakistan and the Philippines — the anchor use case.

Tab 04

Economics

The macro backdrop that actually bends payment behaviour. Nominal GDP, real growth, CPI, policy rate, and FX volatility set the backdrop; interchange, MDR, FX regime, and capital-control posture set the industry-specific dynamics.

UAE is the world's third-largest remittance-sender after US and Saudi Arabia; 88% of resident population is non-citizen.

Nominal GDP

$545B

Real GDP growth

4.6%

CPI inflation

2.3%

Policy rate

4.5%

Unemployment

2.8%

30-day FX volatility

0.02%

Remittance inflows

$0.3B

Remittance outflows

$45.5B

FX posture

How the currency is managed

The FX regime and capital-control posture together determine how much of cross-border flow is priced against the interbank and how much is administratively steered.

FX regime: fixed peg to USD at AED 3.6725 since 1997
Capital controls: none

30-day currency volatility

0.0%benchmark 2.5%0.0%

Scale 0-15%. Benchmark 2.5% marks the approximate median across G10 majors.