Abu Dhabi: UAE banks have surplus funds parked with the central bank and haven't used a credit facility set up after Dubai World announced plans to restructure debt, a central bank official said.
"It has never been used," Saif Shamsi, senior executive director for the treasury department of the Central Bank, told reporters when asked whether banks have drawn on the emergency facility. "Banks have surplus funds with us."
The central bank on Nov-ember 29 announced a special additional liquidity facility at the rate of 50 basis points above the three months Eibor. Dubai World announced on November 25 that it would seek to freeze or delay repaying debt until at least May 30.
The company said on December 1 it wants to alter terms on about $26 billion (Dh95 billion) of debt.
Since the global credit crunch began, the government has offered liquidity facilities to banks, lowered the repurchase rate and is discussing a proposal to guarantee bonds issued by local lenders.
The UAE economy will grow between 2.5 and 3 per cent this year, Economy Minister Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri told reporters today at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
Inflation in the UAE should be no more than two percent this year after slowing from record highs above 12 per cent in 2008, the minister told reporters.
Inflation slowed to an average of 1.6 per cent in 2009, the Ministry of Economy said on Sunday.
