UAE not worried about oil price drop: Finance Minister

The United Arab Emirates' finance ministry is not worried about a drop in oil prices.

US crude oil futures lost almost $17 over the past week, their biggest weekly drop since they began trading in 1983, on demand worries and a move by investors to slash commodities exposures.

"Oil prices, they go up, they come down. We are fine, no issue right now," Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid al-Tayer told a news conference after a Gulf finance ministers' meeting in the UAE capital.

Tayer also said the UAE, rated Aa2 by Moody's, had no plans to issue a sovereign bond this year.

"If it (a federal bond) is needed, any issuance will be only at the beginning of next year," he said. 

Younis al-Khouri, undersecretary and director general at the ministry, told Reuters earlier on Saturday the authority will assess demands to raise federal budget spending at the end of May or in early June.

"We have been receiving some of the ministries' and government entities' requirements and we are studying supporting them in the extra budget requirement," he said.

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