Washington/New Delhi: The International
Monetary Fund has said the Dubai debt crisis will not have a
large impact on the flow of remittance out of the United Arab
Emirates.
The UAE accounts for nearly 13 per cent of the total
remittance flow into India, with as many as 42 per cent of the
1.5 million population of Dubai being Indians.
Noting that remittance worth USD 10 billion go out of
the UAE, a top IMF official has said the Dubai crisis might
have some effect on those outflows.
"... I think it's important to recognise that while there
may be a slowing down in Dubai, Abu Dhabi continues to grow
rapidly, as do other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC). So the net effect in terms of remittances out of the
region may not be as large," Masood Ahmed, Director of IMF's
Middle East and Central Asia Department said on Wednesday.
The Dubai crisis erupted in late November with the
government-owned conglomerate Dubai World seeking six months
time to repay debts worth USD 59 billion.
The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said the crisis
would have some impact on remittance flow into the country,
especially to those states which get huge inflows from the
Gulf region.
"Some parts of the country are certainly more dependent
on remittances from Dubai, but overall I think it is too early
to say. There could be some impact obviously... We have to see
how far the Dubai financial crisis spreads," RBI Deputy
Governor Usha Thorat had said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 04, 2009, 17:48