AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.4%)
AIRLINK 129.53 Decreased By ▼ -2.20 (-1.67%)
BOP 6.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.15%)
CNERGY 4.63 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (3.58%)
DCL 8.94 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.36%)
DFML 41.69 Increased By ▲ 1.08 (2.66%)
DGKC 83.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-0.37%)
FCCL 32.77 Increased By ▲ 0.43 (1.33%)
FFBL 75.47 Increased By ▲ 6.86 (10%)
FFL 11.47 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.06%)
HUBC 110.55 Decreased By ▼ -1.21 (-1.08%)
HUMNL 14.56 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (1.75%)
KEL 5.39 Increased By ▲ 0.17 (3.26%)
KOSM 8.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.58 (-6.46%)
MLCF 39.79 Increased By ▲ 0.36 (0.91%)
NBP 60.29 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
OGDC 199.66 Increased By ▲ 4.72 (2.42%)
PAEL 26.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.15%)
PIBTL 7.66 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.41%)
PPL 157.92 Increased By ▲ 2.15 (1.38%)
PRL 26.73 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.19%)
PTC 18.46 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (0.87%)
SEARL 82.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.58 (-0.7%)
TELE 8.31 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.97%)
TOMCL 34.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.12%)
TPLP 9.06 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (2.84%)
TREET 17.47 Increased By ▲ 0.77 (4.61%)
TRG 61.32 Decreased By ▼ -1.13 (-1.81%)
UNITY 27.43 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.04%)
WTL 1.38 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (7.81%)
BR100 10,407 No Change 0 (0%)
BR30 31,713 No Change 0 (0%)
KSE100 97,835 Increased By 507 (0.52%)
KSE30 30,350 Increased By 157.1 (0.52%)

Oman is committed to maintaining the peg of its currency against the US dollar despite the drop of oil prices, central bank executive president Hamood Sangour al-Zadjali said. "We are committed to keeping the Omani rial pegged to the US dollar," Zadjali texted to Reuters late on Wednesday in a response to a question. He did not elaborate.
The plunge of oil prices since mid-2014 has put heavy pressure on Oman's state budget, causing one-year dollar/rial forwards to rise as high as 1,000 points this week, their highest since 2006, as some investors hedged against the risk of an eventual rial devaluation. Devaluing the rial could aid state finances by increasing the local currency value of oil exports. However, it would also raise the cost of the many imports on which Oman depends and could shake investor confidence, so economists do not think authorities will abandon the peg.
They note that Oman has maintained the peg, set in 1986 at 0.3849 rial to the dollar, through past periods of extreme oil price weakness. On Monday, credit rating agency Fitch cut its long-term issuer default ratings for five Omani banks, saying the government had become less able to support the banking system. But Zadjali noted that after the downgrade, Fitch had left the outlooks for the banks stable, and he said they did not face significant financial pressures.

Copyright Reuters, 2015

Comments

Comments are closed.