The total amount of personal loans in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) climbed during the second quarter of 2016 by 7.5 percent to 117.16 billion U.S. dollars, up from 109 billion dollars year on year, daily Gulf News reported Wednesday.

The average resident in the Gulf Arab state, with a total population of around 10.1 million people, now carries a debt burden worth 11,600 U.S. dollars as of June 30, 2016, said the report, which is based on debt data provided by the UAE's second largest lender, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).

The loan-to-deposit ratio has reached 103.4 percent in the UAE, Alp Eke, senior economist at NBAD, was quoted as saying.

In addition, banks in the UAE suffer losses from bad loans as insolvent business owners flee the country without settling their outstanding debts.

Small business owners who fled the country in 2015 left a total amount of unpaid debts worth 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, UAE Banks Federation Chairman Abdulaziz Al-Ghurair said.

Due to the absence of a bankruptcy law, which is poised to be issued in the UAE by this year, unpaid debt is regarded a criminal offense under the Gulf state's law.

Source : XINHUA