CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC IN CHAOTIC TIMES

摘要

Some Gulf economies have been feeling the pain of the credit crunch. Both the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait governments have created emergency facilities to inject liquidity into a tightening credit market. The mood in Saudi Arabia, however, appears to be less chaotic because its economy is cushioned by high oil price revenues and abundant government liquidity. But Saudi Arabia has not been immune. So far, the biggest writedown has come from Samba Financial Group, which wrote off SR500m ($133m) as "impairment on investments". Although the bank has not said what these are, analysts believe they are related to subprime exposure. Other banks allegedly exposed include Arab National Bank, Saudi British Bank, Riyad Bank, Saudi Fransi and National Commercial Bank. Those not exposed include the three Islamic banks, Bank Al-Jazeera, Al-Rajhi Bank and Bank Al-Bilad, as well as Saudi Hollandi Bank.