Abu Dhabi, UAE – The UAE’s total trade in goods and services with the world jumped in 2025 to a historic level of AED 6 trillion ($1.63 trillion), compared to AED 5.23 trillion ($1.424 trillion) in 2024.
Thus, it achieved a record growth rate of 14.7%, according to the World Trade Organization report “World Trade Prospects and Statistics – March 2026”.
Which demonstrated the leadership of the UAE, one of the strongest global and regional economies and the fastest growing in the field of foreign trade.
The report’s data showed that the value of the UAE’s trade in goods exceeded 4.86 trillion dirhams ($1.32 trillion) in 2025, compared to 1.14 trillion dollars ($4.2 trillion).
The growth rate reached 15.78%, as well as $311 billion (1.14 billion dirhams) worth of services.
This brings the UAE’s total trade transactions in goods and services with the world to $1.63 trillion (6.0 trillion dirhams).
According to the report’s data, the UAE achieved a trade surplus of $88 billion (AED 323 billion) from its merchandise trade.
As well as $71 billion (260.5 billion dirhams) in services, bringing the total trade surplus for goods and services together to $159 billion (583.5 billion dirhams).
According to the report, the UAE ranked first in the Middle East and Africa in exports and imports of goods and services, and maintained its position as the most important market for exports and imports of goods in the Middle East and Africa.
Continuous rise
The report’s data showed that the UAE rose to ninth place globally in terms of commodity exports in 2025, compared to 11th place globally in 2024.
With a total of $707 billion (2.6 trillion dirhams) compared to $603 billion (2.21 trillion dirhams), contributing 2.7% of the world’s commodity exports, achieving a growth of 17.24%.
If the European Union countries are treated as a group, the UAE will jump to rank 7th globally.
According to the report, the UAE also advanced from 14th place globally in 2024 to 13th place globally in 2025 in terms of commodity imports.
It recorded a value of $619 billion (2.27 trillion dirhams), with a contribution rate of 2.3% of the volume of global commodity imports.
This compares to a value of $539 billion (AED 1.97 trillion) in 2024, a growth rate of 14.8%, and if the European Union countries are treated as a group, the UAE jumps to rank 10 globally.
services trade
According to the report, the UAE’s total trade in services trade during the year 2025 amounted to $311 billion (1.14 billion dirhams), compared to $282 billion (1.0 trillion dirhams) in 2024, with a growth rate of 10.2%.
The World Trade Organization indicated that the UAE maintained its 13th place globally in service exports in 2025.
This is with the value rising to $191 billion (701 billion dirhams) compared to $176 billion (646 billion dirhams) in 2024.
With a growth rate of 8.5%, and a contribution of 2.0% from the world’s services exports, and if the European Union countries are treated as a group, the UAE jumps to rank 9th globally.
outlook for global trade
According to the report, global trade in goods and services grew by about 4.7%, exceeding global GDP growth of 2.9%.
In 2026, trade growth is expected to converge with output at around 2.7% and 2.8%, respectively.
The value of global commodity trade reached $26.26 trillion in 2025 (a growth of 7%).
While services trade reached $9.56 trillion (8% growth), total global trade reached $34.65 trillion.
The World Trade Organization expects global trade growth to slow in 2026, amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and rising energy prices, despite the strong performance recorded by trade in 2025.
The report stated that the growth of global commodity trade is likely to decline to 1.9% in 2026 compared to 4.6% in 2025.
