Dubai World's Debt is manageable, according to many experts who all go to great lengths to point out, in a story that manages to be almost impenetrably oblique, that the whole sum involved is a drop in the international financial ocean. Now I had always thought we were talking about a six month delay in repaying a $3.52 billion sukuk but according to Gulf News today the total amount of debt that Dubai World is in talks to restructure, and that we shouldn't be worrying about, is $26 billion.
The talks haven't actually started yet, according to GN, but are awaiting the nomination of a negotiator by Dubai World's creditors.
Meanwhile, the newspaper carries an op-ed by a Dr. Ahmed Mustafa that claims Dubai is being victimised by a 'frenzied' and 'irresponsible' media keen to overplay the situation. "Global reaction to DW saying it needs time to restructure and asking for six more months to repay $3.5 billion in credit was a bit exaggerated." says the good Doktor. See, he thought we were just talking about $3.5 billion, too.
If we're actually talking about $26 billion, it does rather leave you wondering what they're supposed to have been exaggerating...
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According to Jim McLean in The Times on Saturday, Dubai's total debt may be as much as USD 150bn: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6945325.ece This may or may not be an exaggeration of the facts - we'll never know. In any case, this number comes from a bank, not the press. Don't shoot the messenger, please.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, given the fact that the last 4 paragraphs of the article were censored out in the UAE print version, I'll be using my own judgement to decide whose representation of the facts I should trust.