In a move that could derail investor confidence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) has included the region in its most probable to debt crisis list. A local business journal Arabian Business said that the bank made its prediction based on country's liquidity, solvency, GDP growth, inflation and exchange rate volatility.

Timothy Ash, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa research at the RBS, as quoted by the paper, expressed, "The inclusion of some credits in the Middle East (Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE) as potentially at risk does perhaps come as something of a surprise, albeit perhaps less so after recent developments in Dubai."

Other countries which are vulnerable to severe financial crisis include Bahrain, Iceland and Lebanon. The report said that conditions in Dubai are not fully repaired but UAE central bank can avoid the possiblity of any crisis by effectively using its amply available resource.

Ash said that large scale external borrowing by quasi-sovereign entities is the main reason as to why UAE has been included in the list.