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DUBAI - The signs of a mass exodus of expats from Dubai seem to be easing if abandoned vehicles are any indication of their leaving the emirate due to the financial crisis.

Dubai Municipality told Maktoob News there was a 10.6 percent decline in the number of abandoned cars in the city for all of 2009 compared to 2008, despite a 20 percent rise during the first seven months of 2009.

The municipality said its waste management department collected 2,258 cars last year compared to 2,527 in 2008.

In September of last year, the municipality had told Maktoob News that 1,476 vehicles were recovered until July 31, compared to 1,227 during the same period in 2008.

Hassan Makki, Dubai Municipality’s director of waste management, declined to be drawn to explain why there was a sharp rise until July but full-year figures showed a decline.

He said the municipality spent nearly 10.2 million dirhams ($2.77 million) during 2009 collecting abandoned cars.

A real estate consultant, surveyed for a Maktoob News population poll last month, said her analysis showed "a more significant decline" for the Dubai’s population for the first half of last year.

"Our analysis for first half 2009 showed Dubai’s population declined by 12 percent to 15 percent," said Jesse Downs, director of research and advisory services at real estate consultancy Landmark Advisory, who forecast a decline of 5 percent in the UAE’s population last year and a 3 percent rise in 2010.

FLEEING DUBAI

Abandoned cars in once booming Dubai, especially at the city’s airport, have caught the attention of the world’s media, which have showcased dust-covered automobiles - sometimes with unfinished coffee cups and toys in them - left by fleeing expats.

The global recession hit the emirate and region in late 2008, decimating Dubai’s real estate and construction sectors, the fuel behind the city’s meteoric rise.

While Dubai authorities have said the problem of abandoned vehicles in the city is not as prominent as reported by media, parking lots have cars covered in dust with messages, such as “Gone Away”, “Help Me”, scrawled on them.

A Maktoob News reporter late last year found an abandoned Porsche Boxster in Dubai’s Al Barsha district with its keys in the ignition and loan documents on the passenger seat.

Expats make up more than 80 percent of the UAE’s population. The country’s economy, which contracted 0.7 percent last year, is expected to grow zero to 1 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund has said.

Economists polled by Maktoob News have forecast UAE population growth of less than 1 percent this year despite the government predicting it will jump by a third to 7.6 million.