GCC can price oil in new currency -economist
Nov 23, 2009 at 09:20
DUBAI - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and other Gulf states could consider pricing crude oil in a new regional single currency instead of the U.S. dollar in the future, a top Saudi economist said Monday.
"That could put GCC economies amongst the world's most important," Saeed Al Shaikh, vice president and chief economist of National Commercial Bank told delegates at a business conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Four of the states that make up the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain--have agreed to create a single currency in the region that could come into existence by 2012. The two other members, the U.A.E. and Oman, have opted out of the plan.
A shift to price oil in a new single currency by the Gulf Arab states, which pump about a fifth of the world's crude, could see the U.S. dollar lose its status as the world's benchmark currency.
Nov 23, 2009 at 09:20
DUBAI - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and other Gulf states could consider pricing crude oil in a new regional single currency instead of the U.S. dollar in the future, a top Saudi economist said Monday.
"That could put GCC economies amongst the world's most important," Saeed Al Shaikh, vice president and chief economist of National Commercial Bank told delegates at a business conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Four of the states that make up the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain--have agreed to create a single currency in the region that could come into existence by 2012. The two other members, the U.A.E. and Oman, have opted out of the plan.
A shift to price oil in a new single currency by the Gulf Arab states, which pump about a fifth of the world's crude, could see the U.S. dollar lose its status as the world's benchmark currency.