Is Abu Dhabi retrenching too fast? Economists believe the emirate’s serious spending cuts — to about a fifth in 2015 and by 17% this year — are too much too fast, according to Bloomberg. With the IMF predicting a rapid deceleration in economic growth to 1.5%  from 4.3% last year, “applying the brakes so sharply could put at risk progress already made toward diversifying the economy beyond oil,” according to Razan Nasser, senior economist at HSBC in Dubai. “They are feeding the slowdown and it is weighing on growth,” she said. “They have modest budget deficits and a large asset position and can afford to be a bit more counter-cyclical.”