ISTANBUL: Big oil producing nations denied a British newspaper report Tuesday that Gulf states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the US dollar with a basket of currencies in trading oil.
The dollar eased in response to the report, which was written by The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk and cited unidentified sources in Gulf states and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong.
It said the proposal was for trade in crude oil to move over nine years to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen, the Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
But top officials of Saudi Arabia and Russia, speaking on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund meetings in Istanbul, denied there were such talks. The two countries are the world’s largest and second-largest oil exporters.
Asked by reporters about the report, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Gov. Muhammad Al-Jasser said: “Absolutely incorrect.” He repeated the same response when asked whether Saudi Arabia was in such talks.