Property koncepts - Property News: Middle East registers a loss of $2.5 trillion in past four months.

Middle East registers a loss of $2.5 trillion in past four months.
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K K Infra on 30/11/2011 08:37:00
 
The global financial meltdown has cost countries in the Middle  East $2.5
trillion in four months and led to 60 per cent of development projects in the
region being put off or scrapped, it is claimed.
The extent of the damage was revealed by Kuwait's foreign minister Sheikh
Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, who is also acting oil minister. “This just
shows the huge damage caused by the crisis,” Al-Sabah told the Arab Economic
Summit in Kuwait City.
The stark reality is that with oil prices having tumbled 75 per cent from a July
high as the global economy sank into recession, budgets are severely strained,
Al-Sabah said.
Saudi Arabia, Oman and Dubai, the second-largest sheikdom in the United Arab
Emirates, have said that they will run deficits next year as low prices squeeze
revenue.
Also, sovereign wealth funds have been hurt by declining stocks. The New
York-based Council on Foreign Relations estimates a fund held by Abu Dhabi, the
largest sheikdom in the UAE, lost $125 billion.
Gulf sovereign wealth funds have invested billions of dollars in financial
institutions. The Kuwait Investment Authority last January paid $3 billion for a
stake in Citigroup and invested $2 billion in Merrill Lynch. Abu Dhabi's
Investment Authority bought a 4.9 per cent stake in Citigroup for $7.5 billion
in November 2007.
The crisis has meant that builders across the United Arab Emirates are
struggling to finance developments and sell real estate as credit has dried up
and a five year boom in property prices.