Oil-rich Gulf Arab states need to tackle the growing challenge of unemployment and step up efforts towards their goal of a monetary union, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Saturday.
Speaking after talks in Saudi Arabia with finance ministers and central bank governors of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), IMF managing-director Rodrigo Rato said the GCC must also cut dependence on volatile oil revenues.
"The road to monetary union will require intensified efforts to ensure political consensus on critical economic issues and development of relevant convergence criteria, common data standards, and development of relevant institutions," Rato said.
GCC nations set up a unified customs union early last year and plan a common market by 2007 and a single currency three years later. Their central bankers met in Kuwait earlier this month to finalise agreement on criteria for standardising measures such as budget deficits, inflation and interest rate. But they ended their meeting with no official comment.