But given that the credit crunch started to bite last July, one would have expected a few more calamities to emerge by now.

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The answer seems to be that the interests of exporters are paramount, given the desperate scramble for growth that has followed the credit crunch and the global recession.

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The credit crunch has given them the opportunity.

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The credit crunch hit the industrial sector particularly hard, given its dependency on trade credit for inputs and subsequent exports.

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Although Dubai World's financing issues are not a surprise and are relatively small given global credit losses, they are a reminder that the vulnerabilities and imbalances that contributed to the credit crunch have not disappeared.

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