The United Arab Emirates will see a slowdown in business because of global economic conditions, the country’s Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser Al-Suweidi said on Monday.
‘We will see a slowdown of business due to an expected economic downturn (globally), due to effects of the European crisis and the situation in the US as well,’ he told Reuters at a financial forum in Kuwait.
‘There will be an effect on China. China is the main economy to affect the supply of oil…so there will be impact on local economies of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).’ However, Al-Suweidi added that China was growing at a very reasonable speed, so he was not very concerned about a severe slowdown there.
The central bank governor also said he was happy with the UAE’s current monetary policy rate of 1 percent. He reiterated that UAE banks’ exposure to sovereign and private sector debt in Europe was ‘really small’.
