Saudi Arabia ruled out severing the riyal's peg to the dollar before Gulf Arab rulers meet this week under intense market scrutiny over a United Arab Emirates call for regional currency reform.
"We will not drop it. That's it," Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf told reporters after a meeting of Gulf finance ministers. The rulers of six oil producers preparing for monetary union meet on Monday and Tuesday.
UAE Central Bank governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi said last month he was under intense social and economic pressure to drop the peg to the tumbling dollar and track a currency basket to contain inflation.