Gulf to push on with monetary union

Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf states will proceed with their monetary union plan and the location of a Gulf central bank would not be open for renegotiation, the Saudi finance minister said.

“It is not derailed, it will continue. The monetary union will proceed as planned,” Ibrahim al Assaf told Reuters in an interview in Oman on Saturday, less than two weeks after the UAE abandoned the single currency project.

“As long as we are moving in the right direction, this is the most important.”

The UAE, the second-largest Arab economy, broke ranks with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain by dropping out of the single currency plan in protest over the decision to base the Gulf central bank in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.