The Gulf economies must guard against potential consequences of the latest round of economic challenges faced by Europe and the United States, a top banker said.

The Beirut-based Union of Arab Banks (UAB), which groups 470 Arab banks, said many regional nations are already suffering from high debt, slow growth, lower government revenue and a slowdown in capital flow into the region.

Union of 7 shaikhdoms in UAE are suffering from high public debt because of excessive borrowing to fund local projects and support their budgets and balances of payments.

It put the debt in the UAE at 21 per cent of GDP at the end of 2010 and expected it to fall back to 16.3 per cent in 2011 and 14.5 per cent in 2012.

coming up is a dry spell for UAE if the economic situation in europe continue for another fortnight

with a local product oil

prices going up by 30% within a quarter everyone is feeling the crunch. Lifestyle are crumbling and expats suffering most. The salary bracket difference between local & expat is huge as huge as 100% and the EXPAT standing in UAE is but ‘luxurious’ slavery with zero rights as human.

Lending banks are vultures as soon as they loose a job and fail to pay the loan they either end up in jail or commit a sucide. There is no 3rd choice for EXPATS in UAE.