Charts & Numbers

Since today is the last day of the highly anticipated meeting of the Gulf Arab states many rumors have risen as to the future of the currency union of 2010. The meeting will conclude today in the Qatari capital of Doha. A statement by Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani reiterated the Gulf’s commitment to a single currency, the same optimism is shared with all the member countries.

“There are plans by all competent institutions in the GCC to achieve that goal by that date… We set 2010 for the monetary union and we are still sticking to this date.”

- Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi, The United Arab Emirates central bank governor

Rumors that the Qatari Riyal and the UAE Dirham would be revalued were obviously dismissed by the governors” at the meeting. Any slight indication of a revaluation from the governors will spark a mass speculative attack on the currency forcing the central banks to reform. 

“(We) should not base a long-term monetary decision on this temporary phenomenon” (Referring to the US recession)

- Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi, The United Arab Emirates central bank governor

When asked, Suweidi repeated the notion that there was no intention to remove his country’s peg to the dollar, but added for the ”time being” as the weakness of the dollar was a “temporary phenomenon”. This leads to the conclusion that if the US Dollars’ decline proves to be more than a ’temporary phenomenon’ the revaluation will definitely occur. Many analysts remain confident that the economic pressure will force the Gulf countries to drop their pegs against the US Dollar soon.