Oman reaffirmed its intention yesterday not to join the monetary union planned by its partners in the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).
Hamoud bin Sengour Al Zedjali, chief executive of the Central Bank of Oman, was asked by the Omani Arabic language daily Oman about the Sultanate's latest position regarding the GCC's single currency.
"Oman is not ready at present to join the GCC monetary union and the single currency…we have officially informed the GCC Secretariat of this decision," he said.
GCC states have set 2010 as an initial deadline for the monetary union but Saudi Arabia's monetary chief said last week the project might not materialise on time.
Oman decided last year to pull out of the plan on the grounds it is not prepared for the time being to be part of it.
The heads of state of the GCC, which groups the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, are due to discuss the union when they meet in Muscat later this year. But it was not clear whether they would announce its creation.
GCC states launched a customs union in 2003 and a common market at the start of 2008 but are still haggling on the single currency, which requires strict fiscal policy alignment, involving the debt, budget, inflation and growth levels. A GCC monetary union, which could be the first in the Middle East, would give birth to the largest oil bloc in history, with crude reserves of more than 480 billion barrels, nearly 45 per cent of the world's proven oil wealth. Their current crude production of around 15.5 million bpd also exceeds 17 per cent of the global oil supplies.
The number
45%: The percentage of the world's proven oil wealth jointly held by the six GCC countries