Bucking worldwide trends, loans by the international banking community to the UAE have risen, to stand at a level of $7.6 billion at the end of June 2000, from $6.4 billion at the end of June 1999, according to statistics prepared by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) which was reported by Gulf News.
A closer examination of the loans indicated that lending to banks fell to 25.5 percent in June 2000 from 44.1 percent in June 1999, and lending to the public sector was down from 7 percent to 4.1 percent. At the same time, lending to the private sector rose from 48.5 percent in June 1999 to 70.3 percent in June 2000.
The worldwide exposure to Africa and the Middle East of BIS reporting banks fell by $0.9 billion to $123 billion, between June 1999 and June 2000. —(Albawaba-MEBG)
