Dubai Confident Of Project Funding Despite Oil Plunge -Finance Chief

Dubai is confident that it will be able to raise equity and debt to finance all its huge development projects over the next five years despite the plunge in oil prices, the head of the emirate’s Department of Finance (DoF) said.

“The government in its forthcoming budgets has enough headroom to fund the projects through a healthy debt-equity mix,” director-general Abdulrahman al-Saleh said.

“In addition, DoF has built a strong yield curve to raise both long-term and short-term funds at attractive rates. The finance department does not believe the state of the oil market is directly relevant to Dubai’s long-term plans,” he was quoted on the department’s website (www.dof.gov.ae) as saying to a United Arab Emirates newspaper, The National.

The emirate aims for 4.5-5.0 per cent annual gross domestic product growth in coming years, Saleh also said.

Dubai, whose property market crashed in 2008, has recovered strongly from a severe debt crisis in 2009-2010, and has announced real estate and infrastructure projects worth tens of billions of dollars before it hosts the World Expo exhibition in 2020.

In contrast to the rest of the region, it has only a small oil industry, although it benefits from trade and tourism flows when economic growth in neighbouring oil exporting states is strong.