UAE cardboard box sales rocket

Quirky side stories of the crisis, No. 254: A mass migration of tenants – and expatriates leaving – has led to a shortage of that most essential item, the cardboard box. Go here for the full The National article.

Apparently, there really are effects felt as a result of fewer people here, due to job losses: less traffic on the streets, rents going down, schools that were earlier quite picky about which students they accept (there is no free public school system here, but you have to apply and pay for your children's education) now are courting parents more.

What I also learned is that various banks are trying to get people to deposit their money with them - by giving away cash prizes of up to AED 1 million and draws that include cars and holidays (see here for an example). Some authorities also fear a number of expatriates might pack up when the school year is over.

At the same time, other officials insist that we have seen the bottom, and that it is now or at least soon going to go up again, with the IMF predicting a 3.3 percent growth for the UAE in 2009 (down from 6 percent earlier).

Anyway, this place is far from gloom and doom, as an FT commentator wrote some time ago - even though it is quite startling to have Dubai as a city as it is anyway!