VOA标准英语10月-Arab Stock Markets Continue Freefall

Investors¹ in the Arabian Gulf² and elsewhere across the Arab world continued to panic, causing stock exchanges from Dubai to Riyadh to Cairo to plunge³ amid falling oil prices and fears of a real estate bust⁴ in the Gulf, as Edward Yeranian reports from Beirut.
　

Traders follow market's movement at Stock Exchange in Kuwait City, 08 Oct 2008

Traders and investors across the Gulf and the rest of the Arab world stared at their screens in disbelief once again, as losses mounted and markets crashed for a fourth day.

Stock markets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Egypt were eight to 10 percent lower, while markets in Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia suffered smaller losses. The Saudi exchange lost close to 10 percent at the opening bell, but had recovered to smaller losses, as the day wore on.

In Kuwait, the central bank reacted by lowering interest rates, and the Kuwaiti stock market registered a much smaller loss of just more than one percent.

In Beirut, the Lebanese stock market lost only about one percent, but losses in other Arab markets were the chief topic of discussion among disgruntled investors.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait each have major investments in Lebanese real estate and industry, and the meltdown of Gulf stock markets could have a profound, lasting⁵ effect on the Lebanese economy.

Beirut Daily Star newspaper columnist⁶ Rami Khouri painted a bleak⁷ picture of the economic situation in the Arab world in general.

"We now are paying the consequences in terms of the full impact of the rather, I think, incompetent⁸ government policies, political and economic policies of the last 30, 40 years," he said, "which did not see the Arab world exploit the opportunity it had with tremendous oil income to diversify⁹ economies and provide domestic investment outlets¹⁰ for the Arab money that was sloshing around the Arab world."

Many Arabs from non-oil producing countries like Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan work in the Gulf, and Khouri foresees a contraction¹¹ in the amounts of money they send home.

"First people are losing money from their investments abroad, and you are probably talking billions and billions of dollars of lost income," Khouri noted¹². "Second of all you are going to have slowdowns in some economies in the Gulf, which means that people from other non-oil producing countries that go to the Gulf to work and send their remittances¹³ home ... those opportunities will become a little bit less than they were before.

"That will create a slowdown all over the Arab world," he added. "Third of all, you will probably get less investment from the Arab countries in other Arab countries. So you have got all kinds of knock on effects internally within the Arab world, and externally, because of the global financial crisis hitting people's investments, especially government investments overseas. And, as economies contract, you do not have spare capacities within domestic Arab economies to take up the slack, and most importantly, create new jobs."

The Arab daily al Hayat estimates that losses in the seven key stock exchanges in the Gulf at the close of trading Tuesday, totaled $150 billion.

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

3 plunge   

v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲

参考例句：

• Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
• That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。

4 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

5 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

6 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

7 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

8 incompetent   

adj.无能力的，不能胜任的

参考例句：

• He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
• He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。

9 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

10 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 contraction   

n.缩略词，缩写式，害病

参考例句：

• The contraction of this muscle raises the lower arm.肌肉的收缩使前臂抬起。
• The forces of expansion are balanced by forces of contraction.扩张力和收缩力相互平衡。

12 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

13 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网