UAE says any revaluation will be made with Gulf
The United Arab Emirates will only revalue its dirham currency with its Gulf Arab neighbours and the change will not happen in the "short-term", Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said on Saturday.
The UAE ratcheted up market expectations it would allow the dirham to rise for the first since 1997 when the central bank called last month for members of the Gulf Cooperation Council regional bloc to drop their pegs to the tumbling dollar.
"We are going to take the appropriate decision, but only as the GCC," Sheikh Abdullah told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Bahrain, when asked whether the UAE was considering revaluing the dirham.
"But there isn't any thought right now of taking such a decision in the short-term," he said.
Sheikh Abdullah, half brother of the UAE's president, declined to give details of a meeting of Gulf central bankers and finance ministers, which fellow GCC-member Bahrain said on Saturday would focus on currency revaluations.
Sheikh Abdullah said he was not aware whether the central bankers would discuss revaluations. He did not comment on the agenda of the finance ministers.
UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi fired market expectations of a policy shift when he said in November that he was under growing social and economic pressure to switch from the dollar peg to a currency basket to contain inflation.
Asked whether the dollar's tumble to record lows on global markets was affecting the UAE economy, Sheikh Abdullah said: "Well it is. But we are certainly managing, because of the high price of oil, to compensate for the weakness (of the dollar)." (REUTERS)
The UAE ratcheted up market expectations it would allow the dirham to rise for the first since 1997 when the central bank called last month for members of the Gulf Cooperation Council regional bloc to drop their pegs to the tumbling dollar.
"We are going to take the appropriate decision, but only as the GCC," Sheikh Abdullah told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Bahrain, when asked whether the UAE was considering revaluing the dirham.
"But there isn't any thought right now of taking such a decision in the short-term," he said.
Sheikh Abdullah, half brother of the UAE's president, declined to give details of a meeting of Gulf central bankers and finance ministers, which fellow GCC-member Bahrain said on Saturday would focus on currency revaluations.
Sheikh Abdullah said he was not aware whether the central bankers would discuss revaluations. He did not comment on the agenda of the finance ministers.
UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi fired market expectations of a policy shift when he said in November that he was under growing social and economic pressure to switch from the dollar peg to a currency basket to contain inflation.
Asked whether the dollar's tumble to record lows on global markets was affecting the UAE economy, Sheikh Abdullah said: "Well it is. But we are certainly managing, because of the high price of oil, to compensate for the weakness (of the dollar)." (REUTERS)
1 comment:
It looks to me like the ministers sat together and agreed to publicly announce that there will be no changes made. It also looks like they have already decided on what and when to implement changes. I suppose the element of surprise in the name of market stability is what they are after. Not sure if this is going to do any good.. but what do I know?
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