Inflation in the UAE
In the year to December 2025, consumer prices in the UAE rose 2.0%, up from 1.6% a month earlier. That is the latest reading available, because the UAE builds its national figure from all seven emirates and that takes months. Since January 2008 prices have risen 33.8%, which means AED100 then buys what AED133.79 buys now, so the same basket of goods costs 1.3 times what it did.
Cumulative & Yearly Inflation
Inflation in the UAE by year
Inflation is the change in that year's average prices against the year before, which is the figure usually quoted. The last two columns take AED100 in January of that year and show what it is worth in December 2025, the most recent month on record. Only years measured in full are listed, so the year now running appears once it ends.
| Year | Inflation | AED100 is now | Cumulative inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0.9% | 126.21 | 26.2% |
| 2020 | -2.1% | 110.32 | 10.3% |
| 2023 | 1.6% | 105.91 | 5.9% |
| 2024 | 1.7% | 103.53 | 3.5% |
Every year from 2009 to 2025
| Year | Inflation | AED100 is now | Cumulative inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 1.6% | 125.67 | 25.7% |
| 2010 | 0.9% | 126.21 | 26.2% |
| 2011 | 0.9% | 124.20 | 24.2% |
| 2012 | 0.7% | 123.31 | 23.3% |
| 2013 | 1.1% | 122.77 | 22.8% |
| 2014 | 2.3% | 121.02 | 21.0% |
| 2015 | 4.1% | 116.74 | 16.7% |
| 2016 | 1.6% | 113.83 | 13.8% |
| 2017 | 2.0% | 111.30 | 11.3% |
| 2018 | 3.1% | 106.24 | 6.2% |
| 2019 | -1.9% | 108.84 | 8.8% |
| 2020 | -2.1% | 110.32 | 10.3% |
| 2021 | 0.2% | 112.41 | 12.4% |
| 2022 | 5.3% | 109.82 | 9.8% |
| 2023 | 1.6% | 105.91 | 5.9% |
| 2024 | 1.7% | 103.53 | 3.5% |
| 2025 | 1.3% | 102.15 | 2.1% |
A short history of inflation in the UAE
The Dollar Peg (1997 onwards)
The dirham has been fixed to the United States dollar since 1997, so the United Arab Emirates imports American monetary policy regardless of local conditions. That was most awkward in 2007 and 2008, when the Federal Reserve was cutting rates into an Emirati economy booming on oil and construction, and again when rates rose sharply after 2022.
Property Cycles (2008 onwards)
Most of the variation in Emirati inflation comes from housing rather than from imported goods. Rents drove the index up sharply before the 2008 crash, fell for years afterwards as an enormous supply of new property came onto the market, and have swung again since. The country also publishes later than most, because each emirate collects its own figures before they are combined.
Post-Covid Inflation (2021 to 2023)
In the UAE, prices rose fastest in July 2022, at 8.4%. The causes of the post-Covid inflation were global in nature, beginning with the lockdowns: factories and ports closed and the shipping between them fell out of sequence, so goods took longer to make and longer to arrive. Governments had spent heavily supporting household incomes through those closures, so when restrictions lifted there was money waiting to be spent and not enough on the shelves to spend it on. Then in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting two of the world's largest suppliers of wheat, fertiliser, oil and gas at once, and the cost of everything grown, heated or transported rose with them.
Because the causes were shared, so was the timing: most countries peaked within a few months of one another in late 2022. The major inflation events covers this episode and the others in more detail.
Common questions about inflation in the UAE
What is the current inflation rate in the UAE?
Prices in the UAE rose 2.0% in the year to December 2025. That is up from 1.6% a month earlier.
What would AED100 in January 2008 be worth today?
AED100.00 in January 2008 has the same buying power as AED133.79 in December 2025, a rise of 33.8%.
What would AED100 in January 2010 be worth today?
AED100.00 in January 2010 has the same buying power as AED126.21 in December 2025, a rise of 26.2%.
What would AED100 in January 2020 be worth today?
AED100.00 in January 2020 has the same buying power as AED110.32 in December 2025, a rise of 10.3%.
How inflation in the UAE is measured
The figures on this page come from the IMF's CPI dataset, with the original data from the UAE's Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC). The series is indexed so that a chosen base year equals 100, and the calculator works out the ratio between any two dates you pick.
The currency shown is the UAE dirham (AED). Coverage runs from January 2008 to December 2025, and updates automatically as each new release is published. Figures for the most recent periods can be revised by the statistics office after first publication.
The UAE publishes later than most countries, and the reason is structural rather than neglect. There is no single national price collection: each of the seven emirates gathers its own prices and reports them separately, and only once all seven are in can the federal statistics centre weight them together into one national index. That assembly takes months, so the national figure lands well after the month it describes, while individual emirates have often published their own numbers long before. The figure above is the most recent the UAE has released, not the most recent month that has happened, and the date on it is the month being measured.
Use this data
Click the reference to select it.
Compare Inflation. “Inflation in the UAE.” Figures for December 2025. https://compareinflation.com/inflation-in-the-uae/
Download the full series (CSV) — 216 months, January 2008 to December 2025, with the annual rate for each.