Expats in Cyprus Furious at 'Legalised Theft' of Their Savings
Britons living in Cyprus are outraged by the Cypriot government's plans to impose a levy on bank deposits, with many desperately trying to withdraw their savings before tax is enforced.

Cyprus Bailout: An Expat's View
BBC: Cyprus' parliament is due to hold an emergency session to discuss a big bailout, which has angered the public.

It is by no means certain that the deal, reluctantly endorsed by the president, will get enough support to pass in parliament.

Under the bailout's terms, people in Cyprus with less than 100,000 euros in their accounts would have to pay a one-time tax of 6.75%.

Those with sums over that threshold would pay 9.9% in tax.

It could affect more than 25,000 British expats living on the island.

Sue Hall runs a wedding business in Cyprus. She spoke to BBC Breakfast from Paphos about how the situation was affecting her. Watch BBC video » | Monday, March 18, 2013

Dubai Falls on Hard Times
NRC HANDELSBLAD: The wealthy Gulf state of Dubai has been hit hard by the global economic crisis. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off and forced to return to their homelands. The Dutch community in Dubai is also feeling the pinch.

Jan Demmink has lived in Dubai for 28 years. It's the pleasant atmosphere, the entrepreneurial spirit and the climate that keep him in the Gulf state. He witnessed the transformation of what was once a tranquil and prosperous town into the vast collection of skyscrapers that makes up modern-day Dubai.

Under the leadership of Sheik Mohammed and his father Maktoum III, the emirate invested in the financial sector, tourism and real estate. The bigger, more expensive and more luxurious the better. Yet these are the very sectors that have been shaken to their foundations by the crisis and meanwhile Dubai has no major oil reserves to fall back on.

Financial nosedive

Jan Demmink works in the electronic security of complexes such as refineries, palaces and roads. His position is safe for the time being. "I work on long-running projects, so I have yet to feel the effects of the crisis," he explains. "But in construction you can see the signs already. A halt has been called to projects that were only started recently, or which have yet to get under way."

Dutch dredging company Van Oord is one of those in the firing line. The company hit the headlines worldwide with the construction of Palm Jumeirah, the first of Dubai's famous Palm islands and the construction of The World archipelago. Van Oord was all set to embark on a third island project, Palm Deira, an order worth 2.5 billion euros, the largest in the company's history. Part of the order has already been realised but the rest is on the back burner for the foreseeable future. The funding simply isn't there. Spokesman Bert Groothuizen says no one saw the rapid changes coming. "It was a nosedive. Especially in the fourth quarter of 2008. And I don't think these problems will be solved in six months' time." Expats Feeling the Economic Nosedive in Dubai >>> By Willemien Groot for Radio Netherlands Worldwide | Friday, February 27, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>

Expats in Saudi Are Feeling the Pinch
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH, 12 April 2008 — The effect of the Saudi riyal being pegged to the weakening US dollar is posing a dilemma to several expatriate workers in the Kingdom, who are either silently suffering the erosion of their incomes or quitting their jobs and going back to their native countries.

Abdul Haq Al-Tazi, a Moroccan accountant working in a private company, said he almost decided not to return after his vacation. He has been forced to reconsider the move because of the dwindling exchange rate of his riyal-based income compared to the currency in his home country.

The SR1,000 he used to send to his family in Morocco used to have an exchange value of 3,000 Moroccan dirhams. Today that SR1,000 fetches only about 2,000 dirhams, Tazi said.

“This fall in my income is because of the euro to which the currency of my country is linked while the value of US dollars, to which Saudi riyal is pegged, is falling. Now I have to send home almost SR1,500 every month to compensate for the shortfall,” Tazi said. He added that his employer did not raise his salary to compensate for the loss that began to be largely noticeable over the past several months. “Since the situation is getting worse I am thinking of leaving for my country where I can at least live with my family,” Tazi said.

Tazi is not the only Moroccan who is considering leaving Saudi Arabia due to the weakening currency and the refusal of employers to raise salaries to compensate for the current problems caused by the riyal-dollar peg. Anas ibn Zaydoun, another Moroccan working in a tourism firm in Jeddah, said he has decided to leave. Expats Feel Bite of Weak Dollar >>> By Galal Fakkar, Arab News | April 12, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)