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Gulf Single Currency Unlikely Before 2013

RIYADH — Plans by Gulf Arab states to launch a single currency could be delayed by three years to 2013, a Saudi newspaper reported on Saturday, quoting an unidentified senior Gulf source.

“It is impossible for the (single) currency to be launched within six months.” Al Hayat newspaper quoted the official as saying.

“I expect the new deadline to be 2013,” the official said.

Last month, the UAE became the second Gulf Arab nation after Oman to abandon the single currency project of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC.

Earlier this year, the GCC abandoned an initial 2010 deadline for issuing the common notes and coins, saying a joint monetary council would determine a new timetable for issuance.

In 2001, the six members of the GCC — a loose political and economic alliance — agreed to set up a monetary union like that of the European Union.

Saudi Arabia has said it and other GCC members Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar will proceed with the plan and will sign a monetary union plan on Monday.

“An accord on monetary union among four members of the six-nation GCC will be signed on Monday,” GCC chief Abdurrahman Al Attiyah said on Friday, the SPA news agency reported.

The signing had originally been planned for Sunday but will now take place during a meeting in Riyadh of GCC foreign ministers.