May 21, 2012
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that refinancing the debts of the UAE’s government-related entities (GREs) remains a challenge made more difficult as European banks trim their activities in the region, Reuters has reported. State-owned firms in the UAE face $30bn of maturing debt this year with over $68bn more in 2013-2015, the IMF said. As of March overall GRE debt stood at $185bn, or 51% of the UAE's gross domestic product last year, compared with $182bn, or 61% of 2010 GDP, at the end of 2010, with Abu Dhabi accounting for over 54% of the total, it said. "The GREs' high dependence on foreign funding increases the vulnerability to roll-over and financing risk, especially in the current volatile external financial environment," the report said.
