Prospects for local currency bonds in #UAE "very interesting" - experts | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Prospects for local currency bonds in UAE "very interesting" - experts | ZAWYA MENA Edition:

The UAE announced that it had passed a federal debt law in October last year, and providing a benchmark yield curve for dirham-denominated debt was one of the reasons given by the governor of the central bank for passing the law.

Speaking at a media roundtable launching a white paper on the MENA debt market held at Nasdaq Dubai's headquarters on Monday, Emirates NBD Asset Management's director of fixed income, Parth Kikani, said: "I think the local currency issuance could be very interesting.

“With this law being passed in the UAE, you could see more local currency issuance in the UAE. So the government forms a local currency curve and the corporates can borrow based on the local currency curve of the government. Since the corporates have local dirham-denominated revenues, it is better for them to borrow in dirham(s).”