Qatar crisis halts GCC single currency plan

CAIRO – 26 October 2017: Arab crisis with Qatar has hampered the development of a single currency in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain central bank’s governor Rasheed Mohammed al-Maraj said Thursday.

During an investment conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Maraj asserted that he has to link the Bahraini dinar exchange rate to the US dollar as it eliminates risk, according to Bahraini al-Ayam newspaper.

Gulf States have been looking into creating a single currency for years, but economists see it as a distant possibility.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has withdrawn earlier from the plan, Maraj added.
On June 5, four Arab countries — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain — severed their ties with Qatar over its support of terrorist groups.

They asked Doha to stop funding terrorists in the region and demanded that 13 conditions be met for dialogue to begin. The Arab countries also closed off all points of entry for Qatari transportation.

During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani renewed the call “for an unconditional dialogue based on mutual respect for sovereignty,” while directing strong criticism towards the four Arab countries.

In the coming period, the Arab Quartet will be handing over to international organizations documents submitted to the UN Security Council and the United Nations proving Qatar's involvement in supporting and financing terrorism.