Bahrain central bank refutes to revalue dinar

16 May, 2006

Bahrain's central bank has no plans to revalue its dollar-pegged dinar in response to the US currency's decline on international markets, the bank's governor said on Monday.
Kuwait revalued its dinar last week, prompting speculation that other countries in the world's biggest oil-exporting region would follow suit to protect their economies from the rising cost of imports, largely denominated in other currencies.
"At the moment we don't feel there is any reason we should reconsider our position," Rasheed al-Maraj, governor of the Bahrain Monetary Agency told Reuters.
"Our currency is pegged to the dollar so obviously some products will be higher (in price)... But we look at the overall picture and we won't mess up our exchange rate for short-term fluctuations," he said on the sidelines of a conference in Jordan.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also said they had no plans to tweak exchange rates that have been fixed to the dollar as the six Gulf Arab states prepares for monetary union in 2010.
Kuwait's finance minister said on Saturday his country's decision to allow a 1 percent appreciation of the dinar was meant to offset the impact of the dollar's slide on investments and inflation. The dollar has hit year-lows against the euro this month.

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