Dubai World, an investment company that manages and supervises a portfolio of businesses and projects for the government of Dubai, is asking for a delay on paying back billions of dollars in debt.
The request has sent global stock, commodity and currency markets into a tailspin.
Meanwhile, Dubai is already $80bn in debt and the cost of insuring the emirate - one of seven sheikhdoms forming the United Arab Emirates - against default on its loans has gone up again.
It will now cost $670,000 to insure $10 million in Dubai debt for a period of five years.
Al Jazeera's Aaron Chew looks at what's at stake.
Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.