Middle East Focus: Spinning Finance in the Middle East, Economics of Dissembling……

Arabia Deserta

Spinning Finance in the Middle East, Economics of Dissembling……

“One year after the start of the world financial crisis, an Arab banking official has estimated losses of Arab banks from the crisis at US$ 4 billion, explaining that 80% of these were the share of Gulf banks. President of Arab Bankers union Adnan Yousuf said that the greatest loss was in the capital flight which reached about US$ 15 billion between June 2008 and June 2009……But he expects that Arab banks will continue to achieve positive results through 2009…....”

“In a report released Tuesday, the I.M.F. estimated that banks and other financial institutions faced aggregate losses of $4.05 trillion in the value of their holdings as a result of the crisis…...” N Y Times

“The world financial crisis is creating a rising number of loans defaulters in the once-booming Dubai, where credit was as easy as the lifestyle few months ago. Borrowing has become almost impossible, especially for items such as luxury cars, as jobs are slashed and liquidity dries up in the Gulf emirate, financial experts and traders say….. The UAE central bank and the finance ministry have together floated 120 billion UAE dirhams ($32.67 billion) of emergency funding since September to help banks deal with tight credit conditions. But banks have used little of these funds to boost liquidity in the market, said Arabi…...”

Only US$ 4 billion from the world crisis, and only 3.2 billion of that for the Gulf banks. Something doesn’t add up here. I shall research further…
As Bill Clinton famously said “It depends on the meaning of ‘is’ is…”
Cheers
mhg
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