Friday, November 16, 2007

Dollar slide ‘eroding’ Qatar’s purchasing power

From the Gulf Times:

Qatar’s deputy prime minister said he was concerned about the diminishing value of the dollar-pegged riyal, becoming the latest Gulf policymaker to question the wisdom of tracking the tumbling US currency.
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are the two Gulf Arab oil producers tipped as most likely to drop their dollar pegs as Kuwait did this year, according to a Reuters poll in September.
The UAE said this week it was considering following Kuwait’s lead and tracking the value of the dirham against a currency basket including the euro.
Asked whether he would consider such a move, Qatar’s Finance Minister HE Yousef Hussein Kamal declined to comment on the sidelines of a meeting of finance ministers of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries....MORE

Climateer also declined to comment.