Export credit to boost Middle East lending

(Bloomberg, Dubai, 2 March 2017)  Middle East borrowers are increasingly using loans backed by export credit agencies to fund projects as tightening liquidity makes conventional borrowing more expensive and difficult to secure, according to Societe Generale SA. France’s second-largest bank by market value is in talks with governments, state-owned and private companies for about twelve loans backed by ECAs for projects including in the energy and oil industries in the Middle East, Richad Soundardjee, regional chief executive officer, said in an interview in Dubai. The lender more than doubled the number of ECA backed loans it helped raise last year, compared with 2015, he said, without revealing the number of loans.