Providing official Statistics for the Common Market and Monetary Union in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries PDF Download

Author: Abdulrahman K. L. Al-Mansouri
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451862989
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 33

View

Book Description
The six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-have laid out a path to a common market by 2007 and monetary union by 2010, based on economic convergence. To monitor convergence and support economic and monetary policy, comparable economic data for member countries and data for the region as a whole will be essential. What is the most efficient way to produce these data? The authors survey the statistical institutions in the GCC countries and present the case for creating "Gulfstat"-a regional statistical agency to operate within a "Gulf States System of Statistics." Valuable lessons can be learned from regional statistical organization in Africa and the European Union-Afristat and Eurostat.

Author: Russell C. Krueger
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 28

View

Book Description
Looking ahead to the creation of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Currency Union in 2010, the paper covers some implications for the statistical programs of the GCC countries. Despite uncertainty over the structure of the proposed union, the paper envisions several types of mutually reinforcing statistics-convergence criteria, statistics on the core policy variables and instruments, additional macroeconomic data, specialized statistics related to the economic and institutional conditions within the union, and public information. Major changes to national statistical programs are needed that should begin soon.

Author: Ugo Fasano-Filho
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 76

View

Book Description
The six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)--Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates--have made important progress toward economic and financial integration, with the aim of establishing an economic and monetary union. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the economic performance and policies of the GCC countries during 1990-2002. Drawing on the lessons from the experience of selected currency and monetary unions in Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean, it assesses the potential costs and benefits of a common currency for GCC countries and also reviews the options for implementing a monetary union among these countries.

Author: Mr.S. Nuri Erbas
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451848811
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 26

View

Book Description
We compare the dollar peg to a dollar-euro basket peg as alternative exchange rate regimes for the incipient Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) currency union. Quantitative evidence suggests basket peg does not dominate dollar peg for improving external stability. However, as GCC exports and external financial assets become more diversified, a more flexible exchange policy may be necessary for competitiveness and stability. Pegging the prospective common GCC currency to a basket, like the dollar-euro basket, may provide a conservative transitional strategy toward a more flexible exchange rate policy.

Author: Emilie Rutledge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134046316
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

View

Book Description
At a time of momentous shifts in the balance of world economic forces epitomized by the current oil price boom, the weakening US dollar and the global credit crunch; the meteoric rise of the Arabian peninsula cannot be understated. Neither, therefore, can their planned monetary union. As key suppliers of the world’s oil and gas the Gulf states have accumulated vast wealth: taken together their sovereign wealth funds are by far the world’s largest and the influence of these funds is becoming increasingly apparent. This book provides a thorough analysis of the scheduled 2010 monetary union. Its findings are based on both primary research and a detailed empirical analysis of the region’s economies spanning 1980-2006. It assesses the region against Optimal Currency Area criteria, the European Criteria, highlights outstanding preparations and considers the underlying economic and political factors that may aid or indeed delay the launch date. Critically this book argues that the present dollar-peg exchange rate regimes are no longer optimal. The future Gulf dinar is likely to seek a more independent path. The ramifications of this - a potential Islamic anchor currency and an alternative oil-invoicing currency - are also considered in some detail.

Author: Mr.Esteban Jadresic
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451969481
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 27

View

Book Description
This paper assesses the eventual replacement of the currencies of the GCC countries with a common currency. It concludes that a properly implemented currency union may contribute to enhance economic efficiency in the region, deepen regional integration, and develop its non-oil economy. However, it cautions that a currency union should be seen as only one component of a much broader integration effort. This should include the removal of the distortions that inhibit intraregional trade and investment, agreements on policy frameworks to ensure macroeconomic stability, and further political integration. The paper also addresses the choice of exchange rate arrangement for the unified currency.

Author: Emilie Rutledge
Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
ISBN: 9948140974
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 12

View

Book Description
It remains open to question whether or not the unfolding global economic slowdown will aid or abet the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) monetary union plans. In fact there are cogent arguments to suppose it could do either. On the one hand, the fate of the Icelandic Krona and the sharp fall of Sterling suggest that staying outside of a monetary union (MU) can be costly and by default Eurozone membership has thus far acted as a safety net. Yet the uncertainty brought about by the credit crunch and ensuing liquidity crisis has resulted in a precipitous fall in both the demand for and price of oil. So, on the other hand, it is now increasingly hard for GCC governments to determine their own revenue streams let alone those of their neighbors. Therefore, their ability to meet and monitor MU convergence targets between now and 2010 will now be that much harder to achieve. The following country by country cost-benefit analysis provides some initial guidance on the country-specific factors that may well influence decisions on whether or not a given country ultimately decides to join the MU. Despite the fact that as this paper goes to press, four of the six GCC states still officially intend to enter into a MU as scheduled next year; it is entirely possible that the launch date may be deferred. It is clear that this ambitious integration project is more than a pipe dream with concrete steps taken such as the launch of a GCC customs union in 2003 and a common market in 2008. Despite all six states signing up to the GCC Economic Agreement of 2001, which clearly set out the roadmap towards a single currency by 2010, Oman’s decision to opt out (citing ‘a lack of progress’ in 2006), the UAE’s concerns over the location of the central bank and Kuwait’s move away from the collective dollar peg (in order to tackle ‘imported inflation’ in 2007) can only be viewed as setbacks. However, these setbacks are not insurmountable, as shown by several European Union countries, notably the UK and Sweden, which decided not to go along with the European Monetary Union (EMU) process.

Author: Ulrich Volz
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849809151
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 393

View

Book Description
This book explores a central issue of the world economy today: the role of regional integration for economic development and global governance. The importance of this issue comes from the fact that the globalisation process that we have been experiencing in recent decades is also a process of open regionalism. [¿] To what extent does this process contribute to development? The reader will find many interesting answers to this question in the book, [which] is an outstanding contribution to this debate. I welcome its publication and look forward to its influence on global debates on the relations between regional integration, development and global governance.' - From the foreword by José Antonio Ocampo, Columbia University, US The contributors expertly provide a comparative perspective on regional integration in different regions of the world while at the same time analysing the various facets of integration, relating to trade, FDI, finance and monetary policies. They provide a comprehensive treatment of the subject and offer new perspectives on the potential developmental effects of regional integration and the implications of regional integration for global economic governance. Whilst highlighting and illustrating the potential benefits deriving from regional economic integration, the book also stresses the problems and challenges regional integration processes are usually confronted with.

Author: Ulrich Volz
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262013991
Category : East Asia
Languages : en
Pages : 339

View

Book Description
East Asian countries were notably uninterested in regional monetary integration until the late 1990's, when the Asian financial crisis revealed the fragility of the region's exchange rate arrangements and highlighted the need for a stronger regional financial architecture. Since then, the countries of East Asia have begun taking steps to explore monetary and financial cooperation, establishing such initiatives as regular consultations among finance ministers and central bank governors and the pooling of foreign exchange reserves. In this book Ulrich Volz investigates the prospects for monetary cooperation and integration in East Asia, using state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical tools to analyze the most promising policy options. --

Author: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 68

View

Book Description
The GCC countries today face a gap between educational output and labor market requirements. These countries enjoy substantial incomes and therefore spend generously on education, resulting in impressive levels of educational penetration among their populations within only a few decades, and have also achieved admirable levels of gender equality across the various stages of the education system. Yet returns on investment in education in the GCC countries are low. The proposed solution has been to re-create the experiences of other countries in developing their education systems and to encourage foreign universities and institutions to become established in the region—measures which have thus far proven inadequate in addressing the GCC’s educational deficiencies. To discuss the relationship between education and the labor market in the Arabian Gulf, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) convened its 15th Annual Conference under the title Education and the Requirements of the GCC Labor Market on February 1–3, 2010 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, hosting a group of distinguished experts from various academic and professional backgrounds. This book comprises a collection of the papers presented at the conference, and as such provides a scholarly examination of the scale of the current dilemma; methods with which to monitor its indicators—such as population growth rates, the spread of education, foreign labor force concerns, and unemployment; variables of education–labor market dynamics in an international context; and case studies of the relationship between education and the labor market in selected GCC countries, including a review of the various related strategies and policies adopted by these countries—particularly those concerned with labor force nationalization and encouraging greater integration of citizens into the private sector.