Dubai market still on hold despite Abu Dhabi support

The show of support for Dubai and its ailing borrowers demonstrated by Abu Dhabi this week, when the central bank of the United Arab Emirates bought a $10bn bond issued by the emirate of Dubai, has been broadly welcome by loans bankers and analysts as a sign that companies in the UAE would not be allowed to default on their debt. But bankers also warned that it might not be enough to kick start the lending market in Dubai, where fundamentals remained weak and discussions surrounding pricing had not yet been resolved.