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Oman committed to US dollar peg, new central bank chief says

Oman committed to US dollar peg, new central bank chief says
Tahir Salim Al-Amri said his country remained committed to the rial’s currency peg against the US dollar. (Reuters)
Updated 17 September 2017

Oman committed to US dollar peg, new central bank chief says

Oman committed to US dollar peg, new central bank chief says

ABU DHABI: The new executive president of Oman’s central bank said on Sunday that his country remained committed to the rial’s currency peg against the US dollar.
Tahir Salim Al-Amri, a former director-general of treasury and accounts at the Ministry of Finance, was speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of Arab central bank governors, in his first comments to foreign media since he was appointed earlier this month.
Al-Amri said the rial was not under pressure in the foreign exchange market, despite low oil prices that have strained Oman’s state finances and current account balance.
In October last year the Ƶn-owned Al Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted Hamood Sangour Al-Zadjali, Amri’s predecessor, as saying the creation of a single Gulf Cooperation Council currency had become inevitable and that “serious measures” were being studied to achieve it.
On Sunday, however, Al-Amri said that Oman was not committed to the single currency project.
“We are committed to the dollar peg but not to the single GCC currency that was decided some years ago,” he said.