Oil and natural gas exports have allowed the UAE to sustain a trade surplus for many years, but changes in oil prices cause the surplus to fluctuate widely from year to year. In the early 2000s traders in the UAE were beginning to seek out new markets in locales such as Russia, the Central Asian states, and East and South Africa. The government does not provide statistics for workers' remittances, investment income, oil and gas export revenues, foreign direct investment transactions, and capital transactions, which seriously compromises the compilation of balance of payments statistics.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports that in 2000 the purchasing power parity of the United Arab Emirates' exports was $47.6 billion while imports totaled $28.6 billion resulting in a trade surplus of $19 billion.
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