New Delhi: The Reserve Bank on Thursday said the
financial crisis in Dubai could have some impact on
remittances and would affect those parts of the country that
receive inflows from the Gulf nation in larger quantity.
"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", RBI Deputy
Governor Usha Thorat said, when asked about the impact of the
crisis on the country.
Many states, especially Kerala, receive large amount of remittances from persons working in the Gulf region.
"We have to see how far this (Dubai financial crisis)
spreads", she said, adding that it might be too early to say
anything about the fallout of the crisis on the country.
As far as banks are concerned, Thorat said, the crisis
will not impact India's banking sector as the exposure "is not
significant and not a matter of concern...It is not something
that materially affects their balance sheet."
Among the state-owned lenders, Bank of Baroda had an
exposure of Rs 5,000 crore in Dubai. State Bank of India too
had provided Rs 1,500 crore to companies in the UAE, of which
Dubai is one of the seven emirates.
The financial crisis in Dubai erupted last month with
conglomerate Dubai World asking for six months time to repay
its USD 59 billion debts.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 03, 2009, 16:17