Fujairah Collage

Fujairah Collage
Some distinctive landmarks in Fujairah

Monday, November 10, 2008

Global Crisis Could Bring Gulf States Together Over Recovery and Common Currency

Slowdown Expected
Officials meeting this week in Fujairah said:

“The UAE faces a slowdown in loan growth and real estate activity in fallout from the global financial crisis.”

“States in the world's biggest oil-exporting region are expecting the global problems to put the brakes on a regional economic boom supported by six years of high oil prices.”

“But Gulf economies sitting on surplus oil revenues would continue to post growth as they push ahead with a monetary union plan that has gained momentum during the financial turmoil, United Arab Emirates Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi said.”

“'The slowdown will be imposed on us … in everything we will see contractions,' he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting in Fujairah, one of seven emirates in the UAE federation. 'But I think we will still be growing in all directions in a very comfortable way.'”

Currency Cooperation
“The global crisis could bring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members closer together as five of them, including Saudi Arabia, strive to launch a single currency by a 2010 deadline that had been derailed for years, Suweidi said.”

Source: Ola Galal, Global Crisis to Hit UAE loans, Real Estate, Reuters/Hemscott, 10 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: GCC Logo.

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