Arif Obaid al-Muhairi, executive director at Dubai Statistics Centre has said the emirate’s economy is expected to grow by 2.3 per cent this year, as it recovers from the global crisis, Reuters has reported. Muhairi also said Dubai’s population is expected to increase, while the jobless rate in the city stands at 0.8 per cent. “According to field surveys, the rate of population growth was around 7 per cent over the first nine months of the year,” he said. “The number of residents is estimated at 1.87 million.”