U.A.E. Says Algosaibi Problems Are Gulf Unity ‘Test’

The way Gulf states manage the fallout from the Algosaibi group, which owes 34.6 billion Saudi riyals ($9.2 billion) to banks, is a test of the cooperation needed to build a unified currency, the U.A.E. central bank governor said.

“If we have a common market, we should know how to deal with such cases,” Sultan Bin Nasser al-Suwaidi said in an interview in Basel, Switzerland today. “We should meet as regulators and we should discuss the issue and discuss a solution. All these things have not happened.”

The U.A.E. on May 20 became the second country in the six- member Gulf Cooperation Council to pull out of a planned monetary union, after Oman withdrew two years ago. The exit of the U.A.E., the second largest Arab economy, was a blow to the project and came after Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, was chosen as the spot for a future Gulf central bank.