BUSINESS BRIEFS
UAE to back banks amid Dubai meltdown
Advertiser News Services
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates has pledged to stand behind foreign and domestic banks in the country, offering additional money while extolling the strength of the Gulf nation's financial sector as world markets brace for a potential day of reckoning today over Dubai's crushing debt.
The UAE's first priority was arguably to avert a run on banks by panicked depositors. But the promise of cheap funds also signaled to global investors that the country's government will do what it can to limit the fallout from its indebted emirate's woes. The UAE's central bank said yesterday it had sent notice of the funds to Emirati banks and foreign banks with branches in the country.
ASIA, LATIN AMERICA TO LEAD IN GROWTH
NEW YORK — The world economy will start growing again in 2010, but emerging markets will accelerate at a much faster rate than the U.S. and Europe, due in part to continued frugality among Western consumers, a new report says.
Developing countries in Asia and Latin America will account for the majority of global economic growth over the next decade, according to the New York-based research group The Conference Board, which puts out the closely watched Consumer Confidence Index. In a new annual forecast released today, the board says world gross domestic product, a measure of overall economic performance, will grow 3.5 percent next year.
JAPAN CONSIDERING ENVIRONMENTAL TAX
TOKYO — The Japanese government is examining the feasibility of abolishing provisional tax rates on fossil fuels, including gasoline and diesel, in April and introducing an environmental tax to combat global warming and cover the resulting drop in revenue, according to government sources.
If the provisionally higher tax rates are scrapped, the central and local governments are expected to lose a total of about 2.5 trillion yen in revenue. The country's government has decided a green tax would fit in with the policies of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration, which has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
