The Dean

By Matthew Brown
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The proposed Gulf single currency will be among the five major currencies in the world, the Dubai International Financial Centre forecast in a report.

Investors and central banks will buy assets denominated in the new currency as a safe haven and to hedge against sudden oil-price increases and inflation, the financial centre said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Gulf central bank governors and finance ministers are meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, today to approve a draft of the monetary union agreement and choose the location of the monetary council, a precursor to the central bank.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are pushing ahead with monetary union after Oman pulled out last year. The five states agreed in 2001 to form the European Union-style monetary union in 2010 to help boost regional trade.

The 2010 deadline for the currency is "achievable" and "largely a matter of political will", the report said.

The DIFC is a tax-free business park with its own regulatory environment, designed to attract global banks, insurance companies and asset managers.

Charismatic

Are Gulf economies even in sync? It's going to make setting interest rates and dealing with inflation interesting .

Spugsy

who's your avatar then? the dead pink floyd dude?

lionheart

I was very sad to learn of RW's untimely demise. What a creative talent he was.

The Dean

Yea - I'm getting away from my tried and tested avatar principles - that it must be an attractive woman with large breasts who happens to be in the news at that time..... I'll sort it out. You're not the first to worry about this........

Didn't Wright get fired from Floyd, then reinstated as a 'session musician'?? Always thought it was a tax dodge myself.............

Nic1

Looks like Jesus to me . . . .