Concerns are mounting over the potential impact on the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) from Spain's escalating banking troubles as the nation teeters on the brink of a multibillion-euro bailout.
The UAE and Qatar pledged to invest in Spain's banking system last year.
"The Spanish banking system is taking a big hit, and if there were investments last year they would be badly hit," Said Hirsh, the Middle East economist at Capital Economics, said.
After a visit to the region in March last year by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, then the Spanish prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, said the Emirates would provide €150 million (Dh688m) to finance the recapitalisation of Spain's savings banks, without specifying which would receive funds.
The Qatari government said it would provide €300m to Spanish banks under a package of investments.
Luis de Guindos, the Spanish economy minister, said yesterday that he was working on a broad overhaul of his country's financial sector with the European Union but insisted that no recapitalisation of the banking system was imminent.
But some financial experts believe Spain will need to find about €80 billion for bank recapitalisation as its lenders suffer from exposure to the troubled property market.
Problems in the banking sector mean the country is the latest victim of the euro-zone turmoil. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already been forced to seek multibillion-euro bailouts from the European Central Bank and the IMF to save themselves from bankruptcy.
Unlike Greece, whose economy has been hardest hit by the crisis, Spain's troubles are not linked to rampant government spending. Instead, the single currency's fourth-largest economy is struggling under the weight of soured loans extended during a property bubble that burst in 2008.
A further worry for the Mena region from Spain's problems is the impact on North African economies.
The EU is one of the main trading partners for Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Spain is one of the top two EU destinations for many of these countries' exports.
"One of the countries that could be the most affected and already has is Morocco, which has a lot of its migrant population that went to find work in Spain and had been sending remittances back home," said Philippe Dauba-Pantanacce, the senior economist in the Mena region for Standard Chartered.
Spain is also one of the main European countries on which North African nations have relied for tourists and other investment in recent years.
The euro-zone crisis is already causing a drag on global growth prospects, including in Asia, until recently one of the few bright spots in the world economy.
"In turn, this could hit the non-oil trade and exports but also oil demand and lower oil-price levels," said Mr Dauba-Pantanacce.
A surge in yields on Spanish bonds means the country has been at the fore of investor worries about the euro zone in recent days. Any hopes of a quick resolution to the crisis were dashed yesterday when the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep interest rates at 1 per cent. Mario Draghi, the ECB president, played down prospects of a third round of money-printing.
On the same day, new data showed German industrial output fell steeply in April. Until now, the euro zone's largest economy has shrugged off the troubles ripping through other parts of the currency area.