Discussions regarding the merger of Dubai mortgage companies Amlak Finance and Tamweel are nearing completion and should be announced soon, Sultan al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy, said today. Mr Mansouri is serving on a special committee set up last month to co-ordinate a proposed merger between the two Dubai-based home finance companies, which have been adversely affected by the effects of the global financial crisis. Amlak and Tamweel were supposed to join under the umbrella of Real Estate Bank, according to announcements made in November.
"We are almost finalised with the issue now. And we will let you know," Mr Mansouri said during a tour of the Abu Dhabi Co-operative Society at Abu Dhabi Mall. "Dubai is very much addressing these issues and they have done a wonderful job in terms of coming up with solutions. I am very impressed with these solutions, with more to come as they go on." Mr Mansouri also said that inflation should fall this year. "We see it possibly between 5-8 per cent," this year, he said.
"But there are many variables: these variables will always influence the inflation. So prediction is one thing, reality ? dealing with all these variables ? is another thing." "We always will continue to have positive GDP growth in our economy,"he added. tpantin@thenational.ae