Business | Economy
Khalifa: Oil price drop won't impact economy
Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan downplayed fears of declining oil prices impacting the national economy.
- Gulf News Report
- Published: 23:15 November 25, 2008
- Shaikh Khalifa with Osama Saraya, Editor-in-Chief of Al Ahram, during the interview.
- Image Credit: WAM
Dubai: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Tuesday downplayed fears of declining oil prices impacting the national economy.
"Volatility in the oil market is not a new thing," Shaikh Khalifa said in a wide-ranging interview with an Egyptian daily that will be published on Wednesday.
"In the past, we dealt with turbulences during which prices declined even further than today's level," he was quoted by WAM as telling Al Ahram.
"We are following what is happening in the oil market and working with our partners in Opec to control the negative fallout that many affect the stability of the global market."
Shaikh Khalifa also added: "We are investing oil revenues to develop human resources which are our most valuable resource, and also diversifying our national income though internal and external investments."
The President's comments came as the UAE ministers of economy and finance and the governor of the UAE Central Bank joined forces to form a new committee aimed at resuscitating the financial and banking sectors.
Abdullah Al Saleh, director-general of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Trade, said the government's commitment would boost all-round confidence in the local markets and relieve the economy of the burden of the global credit crisis.
The availability of liquidity and possible ways to rescue the property sector which, until recently, had been soaring, top the agenda to be discussed within the framework of the new committee. Analysts welcomed the creation of the committee and said it will need to plough billions of dollars into the banking sector to allow them to continue lending and get the market back on track. GCC ministers of finance and foreign affairs, meanwhile, have decided to join the Kyoto Customs Convention.
"GCC ministers have decided to join Kyoto Customs Convention in their capacity as countries," Mohammad Al Mazroui, Assistant Secretary General for Economics at the GCC Secretariat, told Gulf News in Muscat on Tuesday.
— With inputs from Suzanne Fenton/Staff Reporter & Sunil K. Vaidya/ Muscat Bureau Chief
Your comments
I do not think there is a need to worry. The quantity of new business flow might be less but Dubai can manage the situation. The authorities will take the necessery decision at the right time. We lived in Dubai for nearly 15 years and from this experience I can say there is no need to worry at all.
Sivadasan Kuruppath
Ras Al Khaimah,UAE
Posted: November 26, 2008, 13:42
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