After earlier assurances that the Dubai meltdown wouldn´t impact the Indian market much, top officials now admit in published reports that the Indian labor market could be affected.

“Annual remittances to India from UAE is about 2 billion US dollars, out of the $52 billion sent by Indian expats from across the world.Two-thirds of the six million people living in Dubai are Indians, more than 60 per cent of them Malayalis, much to the worry of Kerala’s Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac.“One main fear,” he notes, “is that the credit to realty sector in Dubai would be frozen for some time. It could seriously affect the construction sector, thereby our workers.” There is also concern about the fate of Kochi’s Smart City project as the Dubai-based real estate giant TECOM is already alleged to be in a bad shape.Most of the Indians employed in the UAE, according to recruitment agencies, are in the real estate sector, financial services and retail.“The Middle East meltdown,” says E Balaji of Chennai-based headhunting firm Ma Foi Management Consultants, “will lead to at least 25 per cent contraction in the job market. It can have a ripple effect.”

My Comment:

I´m assuming that the job market refered to is the job market for Indians in the Middle East….

Meanwhile, the rupee has come under pressure as the Indian stock market sold off on the events in Dubai.