UAE has No Plans to Rejoin Monetary Union

DUBAI — The UAE has no plans to rejoin Gulf states working to establish a single currency, Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said.

“The UAE has already taken a clear position on that and we’ve opted out of the single currency,” Gargash said in an interview today in Abu Dhabi. “There’s no new
development here.”

Oman pulled out of the monetary union project in 2007 and the UAE followed earlier this year after the Saudi capital of Riyadh was chosen to host the Monetary Council, the precursor to the central bank. Six Gulf Arab states agreed in 2001 to form a European Union-style currency union to boost trade and allow for a more independent monetary policy.

UAE central bank Governor Bank Governor Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi said on October 29 that his country saw no alternative to the US dollar as a currency peg and was not considering a return to the Gulf monetary union project.

Speculation that Gulf states would abandon their currency pegs reached a peak in November 2007 following Kuwait’s decision in May that year to link the dinar to a basket of currencies instead of solely the dollar.