"Liquidity has also been hit by the Gulf state's decision in April to keep the dirham pegged to the dollar, quashing market bets the currency could be revalued to fight inflation.
"In the last two years, loan growth was faster than deposit growth and essentially what happened was there was greater demand among corporates and banks for external funds," said Giyas Gokkent, head of research at National Bank of Abu Dhabi." Liquidity crunch in the Gulf? Although it's at one of the trade and business centres rather than oil producing emirates.