Kuwait Backs Talks on Creating Gulf Monetary Union
Excerpt:
The Kuwaiti Parliament unanimously approved Tuesday a measure to join efforts to create a Gulf monetary union, but a top government official said adoption of a single currency could take as much as a decade
Kuwait is the latest member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to approve the project. Issuing a Gulf currency would “take a long time and could reach up to 10 years,” Sheik Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti foreign minister, told Parliament.
Kuwaiti lawmakers delayed the vote last month, saying they needed more time to assess the economic implications of a union.
On Tuesday, lawmakers called for another vote to take place before any possible introduction of a single currency.
Among other members of the council, Saudi Arabia has approved the plan and Bahrain is on track to ratify the project before a meeting of Gulf rulers in Kuwait next week.
Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, the council’s secretary general, has said that a third council member, Qatar, had already ratified the union plan although Qatari officials have declined to comment. Two other members of the council, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, have chosen not to join the monetary union plan.
Discussions on creating a single Gulf currency have gained momentum as the value of the dollar has declined.
Comment: &euro = Euro
