Kuwait allows dinar to fall against dollar

Kuwait City: Kuwait, the only Gulf state that abandoned its foreign-exchange peg to the dollar, allowed the dinar to depreciate against the US currency.

The Central Bank of Kuwait is buying and selling dinars at a mid-point of about 0.27815 from 0.27785 yesterday, it said yesterday.

Kuwait's dinar is linked to a basket of currencies dominated by the dollar and also includes the euro, yen and British pound.

The currency weakened 1.1 per cent against the dollar last year.

In currency trading, the dinar depreciated one per cent to 0.27925 per dollar at 3:33 pm in Kuwait City. Against the euro, it rose 0.8 percent to 0.3825.

The three-month Kuwait interbank offered rate, or Kibor, was unchanged at 2.68 per cen.

In the UAE, the three-month interbank offered rates declined to 4.29 per cent yesterday.