UAE plans bond sale

The UAE government is looking at selling its first government bonds, the Ministry of Finance's undersecretary said on Wednesday.

"We have been given a mandate by the Prime Minister's office to study the issuance of government bonds," Younus Al Khouri said on the sidelines of a news conference in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.

The ministry had hired the World Bank to conduct a study on the bond sale, which is not likely to happen before 2010, Al Khouri said, without giving details on the size of the potential bond sale.