The Middle East and Africa 's finance market reached some USD 39.7bn in 2009, daily Al Ektisadiya said in a report. The figure puts the market in the third place internationally after Western Europe and Asia . The paper added that the six GCC countries contributed by almost USD 15bn of the total sum despite the many cancellations that took place in the region's real estate sector last year as a result of the global financial crisis. The main projects that received large finance loans from financial institutions in the region included petrochemicals, steel industries, aluminium plants in addition to large infrastructure projects and industrial cities.
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Bahrain Middle East Bank made a USD 13mn full repayment of a loan obligation including a USD 1.4mn interest payment taking total repayments by the troubled lender to USD 43mn, the bank said in ... more
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