The federal budget for 2027 is Dh90.1 billion, and 38 per cent of it is social

The federal budget is the one public document that says, in dirhams, what the federation does rather than what the emirates do. The UAE Cabinet approved the 2027–2029 plan on 12 October: Dh292.5 billion over three years, of which Dh90.1 billion is 2027.

The 2027 year

Social development and pensions: Dh34.6 billion, 38.4 per cent. Inside it, education takes 18.8 per cent of the whole budget, health 6.7 per cent, pensions 6.4 per cent, social affairs 4.4 per cent and public services 2.1 per cent.

Government affairs: Dh29.1 billion, 32.3 per cent. Federal expenses: Dh17.8 billion, 19.7 per cent. Financial investments: Dh5.6 billion, 6.2 per cent. Infrastructure and economic resources: Dh3 billion, 3.4 per cent.

What was said

Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, put the budget in the frame of the national agenda and the next fifty years; Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, framed it as a balanced budget that keeps the federation's finances sustainable.

What it is not

This is the federal budget, not the sum of the country's public spending. Dubai and Abu Dhabi run their own, and the emirate budgets are where roads, metro lines and the free zones are paid for. The federal 3.4 per cent for infrastructure is not the country's infrastructure spend; it is the federation's share of it.