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The government of Dubai declared yesterday it would ask to postpone debt repayments for its flagship corporate Dubai World (right). The intention is to ask for at least a six-month delay in repayments.
Media reports say Standard & Poor’s has stated the event "may be considered a default under our default criteria". Dubai reportedly has debts of more than $US80 billion, of which $US50 billion is due to mature in the next three years, and Dubai World has a $US3.5 billion bond due to mature next month.
Already commentators have been quick to point out that Dubai’s debt servicing problems are not a genuine surprise. It was merely a case of "when" not "if"."
I'm no expert on Dubai's economy but the basis of their wealth is Oil, and that's pretty secure in the immediate feature. The Economic Boom they have recently being having is a Bubble Economy based on borrowing, credit, greed, speculation, land development, salesmanship, B.S and escalating land values. Pretty much the same economic model the US and The West have being using (and scrambling to get back to
). That is not sustainable.
Dubai will only impact on the rest of us if there is another World Wide crisis in confidence. We will feel it but it will be a hic cup or burp not an almighty chunder
.