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In the Persian Gulf Region, Investors Relax a Little
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"It's hard to make an impression in the land where money is no object," a local executive with Morgan Stanley said Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Markets in some Persian Gulf countries lost nearly a quarter of their value in last week's market drop, but most shot back up Monday and Tuesday.
The United Arab Emirates' central bank announced Tuesday that it would make more than $30 billion available to banks in need of cash.
Some gulf area residents insisted Tuesday they had never been worried.
"The United States creates the dollars, and we create the black gold," Abdulla Ghassab al-Hajri, a businessman based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said Tuesday.
Hajri wore traditional white robes and head cover and stood with his hands behind his back, studying the darting fish inside a massive aquarium in Dubai's new Atlantis hotel, where rooms go for as much as $25,000 a night.
"We support each other," Hajri said of the United States and the United Arab Emirates; others here stress Dubai's links with Asia.
"Europe, Japan, China, the others . . .," Hajri said, making a shooing-away gesture with his hands.
Certainly investors here, as elsewhere, lost money in last week's market crashes, he said, but most Arab small investors already knew the markets were no place for them.
"We like real estate more," he said, cupping his hands before him. "At least there I have an asset I can hold."
After the local branch of Lehman Brothers closed at the outset of the global panic, word was that its landlord at the Dubai International Financial Center received more than 100 calls from other businesses eager to rent the space, said Sulaiman al-Hattlan, head of the Dubai-based Arab Strategy Forum.
The envious might have watched last week's turmoil, and seen Dubai as a property bubble bound to burst, Hattlan said.
"It's wishful thinking," Hattlan said. "Dubai is here to stay."
