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 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.
Amri said the riyal 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 Saudi Arabian-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, 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.
