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UAE’s debt capital market on track to hit $350b by 2026 despite headwinds
The UAE’s debt capital 
market
(DCM), the second-largest in the GCC, is on track to reach $350 billion by 2026, according to Fitch Ratings.Despite robust fundamentals, the market faces headwinds from global economic volatilities, including recent US tariff hikes. The UAE’s DCM, valued at $309 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2025, grew 8.3 per cent year-on-year, driven by strong issuance and diversification efforts.
In the first quarter of 2025, all-currency DCM issuance surged 109 per cent year-on-year to $29.1 billion, though it declined 35 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2024. Dollar-denominated debt accounted for 68.5 per cent of the outstanding total, underscoring the UAE’s reliance on US currency for its debt instruments.