Gulf countries receive billions in Ex-Im Bank subsidies

(Al-Monitor, Washington, 11 June 2015) Companies from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates together pulled in about $12 billion in trade financing over the past five years — 8.5% of the $141 billion global total — to help pay for nuclear reactors, industrial power generators and new fleets of Boeing jets. That includes a record-setting $5 billion loan to help Saudi Arabia build one of the world's largest petrochemical complexes... Turkey rounded out the top three Export-Import Bank financing recipients in the Middle East, with $4.5 billion for aircraft and power plant equipment, according to a review of five years’ worth of Ex-Im bank financial reports. Overall, companies in the Near East and North Africa accounted for 13% of Ex-Im trade financing from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal 2014, including a high of 27% in fiscal 2012.