Dubai’s slowing economy, the rout in commodities and strict debt repayment laws are reviving a phenomenon that symbolized the emirate’s crash in 2009: “skips,” or business owners who quietly leave the country to avoid punishment for defaulting on loans.
A rising number of smaller and medium-sized company owners are abandoning the United Arab Emirates without repaying debt, according to Emirates NBD PJSC, the country’s second-largest bank. People in the SME sector may have left behind 5 billion dirhams ($1.36 billion) of loans this year, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chief Executive Officer of Mashreqbank PSC and chairman of the U.A.E. Banks Federation, said in Dubai on Monday.
