Arab investors have lost 2.5 trillion dollars in the US inspired global credit crunch, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah says. "The Arab world has lost 2.5 trillion dollars in the past four months" as a result of the global financial crisis, Sheikh Mohammad told a press conference following a joint meeting of Arab foreign and finance ministers in Kuwait on Friday.
He also said that about 60 percent of development projects "have either been postponed or cancelled" by the six-nation Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) states because of the global meltdown.
Arab leaders who held their first ever economic summit on January 19-20 will discuss the impact of the worldwide economic meltdown on the 22 Arab countries.
The main losses came from an estimated 40 percent drop in the value of some 2.5 trillion dollars of Arab investments abroad, losses of more than 600 billion dollars from falls on stock markets and a sharp decline in oil revenues.