Budget Dubai 2020 sets record spending to increase growth ahead of Expo

According to the 2020 budget released on Sunday, Dubai expects to substantially increase state spending next year to stimulate the economy of the emirate and support the Expo 2020 world fair.
State budget will rise by 17 percent to a record 66.4 billion dirhams ($18.1 billion) compared to the original budget plan of 56.8 billion dirhams for 2019, WAM state news agency reported.
Budget spending on infrastructure will drop to 8 billion dirhams this time in 2020 for a second year in a row, as the emirate approaches the start of Expo 2020.\
The government has spent a lot of time planning for the six-month World’s Fair, which begins in October, although it has tapered its investment as related projects were completed.
State revenue is projected to rise to 64 billion dirhams by 25 percent, despite previous decisions to cut and freeze some fees for businesses to increase investment. In the 2019 budget, revenues were expected to increase by only 1.2 percent.
Earlier Dubai expected its economy to grow by 3.2 percent in 2020, faster than the rise of 2.1 percent in 2019. In 2018, it rose by 1.94 percent, its slowest pace since a contraction in 2009 when a debt crisis hobbled the economy.
Dubai, with a diverse trade and tourism economy and one of the United Arab Emirates ‘ seven territories, is banking on Expo to boost economic activity.
Dubai, which has no vast oil reserves, has been facing a decline in the real estate market after prices peaked in 2014 after a rebound following a property crash in 2009.
Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has announced a three-year budget cycle of total expenditure of 196 billion dirhams from 2020 to 2022.