From volley to vertigo? Roger Federer and Andre Agassi play atop the helipad that perches most of the way up Dubai’s 321 metre high Burj Al Arab hotel. A property boom has brought worries about debt levels in the emirate

It was early evening a week ago last Saturday when senior officials in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, huddled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to discuss how to respond to the global financial turmoil.