Dubai unveils record three-year budget with $82bn in spending

The emirate's government budget for next fiscal year has pegged expenditure at almost Dh100bn

Construction in Business Bay, Dubai. The emirate's economy has maintained robust momentum in recent years. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Dubai has unveiled a record government budget for 2026-2028, pegging spending during the three-year cycle at Dh302.7 billion ($82.42 billion) as it lays out the financial road map for its ambitious growth targets.

The emirate, the commercial, financial and leisure hub of the Middle East, aims to generate total revenue of Dh329.2 billion, with operating surplus hitting the 5 per cent of projected 2026 GDP, Dubai Media Office said.

“The Dubai government budget for the years 2026-2028 outlines a financial road map to accelerate the realisation of Dubai's ambitions towards enhancing the growth of its vital sectors and affirming its position as a global economic centre,” Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, said in a post on X.

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The funds will help the emirate “achieve the objectives of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33”, which aims to double gross domestic product and make it one of the top three economic cities in the world by 2033, he added.

2026 budget allocations

Approved by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the budgetary targets have pinned expenditure of Dh99.5 billion for the fiscal year 2026 alone.

The Dubai government’s general budget for the next financial year aims to direct spending to across the emirate’s economy from infrastructure and security to community development, the media office said.

For the 12-month period ending December 2026, Dubai aims to hit revenue of Dh107.7 billion, it added.

In terms of spending lay out, the emirate plans to allocate about 48 per cent of the total to the infrastructure and construction projects sector. This is the largest chunk of spending in the next fiscal year, which underpins the importance of the sector to the emirate's economy and its growth prospects.

The second biggest share of spending will go to the community development sector at 28 per cent. Dubai's security, justice, and safety sector will receive 18 per cent of the budget allocation, while 6 per cent will be channelled into the government development sector, the media office said.

Economic momentum

Dubai's economy, which has maintained robust momentum since bouncing back from the Covid-driven slowdown, expanded by 4.4 per cent in the first half of this year amid the push for diversification.

Gross domestic product in the six months to the end of June reached Dh241 billion, with second-quarter growth surging 4.7 per cent annually to Dh122 billion, Sheikh Hamdan announced earlier this month.

Dubai aims to double the size of its economy to Dh32 trillion over the next decade and establish the emirate among the top three global cities as part of its D33 strategy, launched in 2023.

The plan aims to support 30 private companies in their push to become unicorns – a start-up valued at more than $1 billion.

The D33 agenda also aims to raise the contribution of foreign direct investment to Dubai’s economy from an average of Dh32 billion annually in the past decade to an average of Dh60 billion annually in the next decade, to reach a total of Dh650 billion over the next 10 years.

Broad-based growth

Dubai's tourism and property sector, which has been a major contributor to sustained economic momentum in recent years continued to grow in the first half, with with both the number of tourists and property deals rising.

Dubai hosted 12.54 million international overnight visitors in the first eight months of 2025 − up 5 per cent year on year, the Department of Economy and Tourism said.

In the first half of 2025, the volume and value of all real estate transactions in Dubai also jumped sharply, as more than 59,000 investors joined the market, according to data released by the Dubai Media in July.

The number of transactions reached 125,538, up nearly 26 per cent on an annual basis, while the value of these transactions rose about 25 per cent to about Dh431 billion, the data showed.