Global| May 05 2008Appreciation to Come in the Exchange Rates in the Gulf States ???
Summary
The Gulf States, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have, with the exception of Kuwait, long kept their exchange rates pegged to the dollar. The first chart shows the exchange rates of Qatar and Saudi [...]
The Gulf States, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have, with the exception of Kuwait, long kept their exchange rates pegged to the dollar. The first chart shows the exchange rates of Qatar and Saudi Arabia as typical of the majority of the Gulf States and that of Kuwait that has been slowly appreciating since early 2002.
As inflation has increased with the rise in oil wealth in all the states, talk of appreciation of the currencies of the other five gulf states has become widespread. The second chart shows monthly inflation rates in Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia. These are the only states that have monthly data. The remaining states have only quarterly or annual data. The annual rates of inflation for these states are shown in the third chart. The latest data for Bahrain is 2.59% in 2005, for Qatar 9.29% in 2006 and 13.76% for the United Arab Emirates in 2007.
| GULF STATES | Mar 08 | Feb 08 | Jan 08 | Mar 07 | Feb 07 | Jan 08 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inflation | |||||||||
| Saudi Arabia | 9.60 | 8.67 | 6.95 | 2.86 | 2.98 | 3.87 | 4.12 | 2.30 | 0.61 |
| Oman | -- | 11.11 | 10.12 | -- | 4.58 | 4.16 | 5.94 | 3.04 | 1.19 |
| Kuwait | -- | -- | 9.53 | -- | -- | 3.87 | 5.48 | 3.10 | 4.09 |
| Exchange Rates | Recent Quote | ||||||||
| Bahrain Dinar/USD | .376 | ||||||||
| Kuwait Dinar/USD | .266 | ||||||||
| Oman Rial/USD | .385 | ||||||||
| Qatar Riyal/USD | 3.64 | ||||||||
| United Arab Emirates Dirham/USD | 3.68 | ||||||||
| Saudi Arabia Riyal/USD | 3.75 |
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