UAE GDP revision highlights region's data problems

By Daliah Merzaban

DUBAI, July 10 (Reuters) - Confusion over a surprise change to a key growth measure in the United Arab Emirates this week has prompted calls for improvements to economic data releases as investor interest in the booming Gulf region intensifies.

Countries in the world's biggest oil-exporting region have been thrown into the global spotlight as their economies race ahead of the world economy due to high oil prices, giving them windfall revenues to invest in big-ticket acquisitions in the West and Asia.

But consistent economic data -- including gross domestic product (GDP), inflation and money supply -- has struggled to keep pace, with few countries offering timely, detailed statistics or a calendar of scheduled releases.

Heeding these calls, Gulf government bodies are attempting to reform and improve the quality and timeliness of economic indicators as they prepare for a regional monetary union.

"These economies are now becoming global economies," said Marios Maratheftis, head of research at Standard Chartered Bank.

"In the area of statistics, the availability of data has the potential to improve substantially. The market would benefit from knowing a calendar of data announcements and regular updates on the economy."

The UAE, the second-largest Arab economy and the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, revised down its 2007 real GDP growth rate estimate to 5.2 percent from an earlier 7.6 percent, according to data sent to Reuters by the ministry on Wednesday. [ID:nL09269027]

In an apparent contradiction later that day, the ministry issued a denial through the state news agency, WAM, that it had revised down last year's economic growth estimates, saying it was sticking to a headline growth rate of 7.4 percent published in a ministry report in March.