Kuwait backs Gulf currency
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Parliament unanimously approved on Tuesday a plan to join a Gulf monetary union which a top official said could take up to 10 years to implement. Saudi Arabia has already secured parliamentary approval for the project, initially envisioned for 2010. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has acknowledged it would miss the deadline and policymakers have urged the other participating countries, Qatar and Bahrain, to ratify it before year-end.
Nakheel reports $3.65bn H1 loss
DUBAI: Troubled Dubai property developer Nakheel posted a first half loss of 13.4 billion dirhams ($3.65 billion) as revenues fell and it wrote down the value of land and property, according to a report published on Tuesday. Nakheel, whose parent company Dubai World has requested a six-month standstill on Nakheel’s $3.52 billion Islamic bond maturing next week, had made a profit of 2.65 billion dirhams in the year earlier period, Bloomberg News reported.
IMF team to visit Dubai
WASHINGTON: An International Monetary Fund team will visit Dubai in coming weeks to look closer at the economic impact of the Dubai World debt crisis and actions needed to resolve it, a senior IMF official said on Monday. In an interview with Reuters, IMF Director for the Middle East and Central Asia Masood Ahmed said the visit was an opportunity for the IMF to update and conclude its 2009 assessment of the United Arab Emirates.
Oman money supply grows
MUSCAT: Omani money supply grew 5.6 percent in January-October to 7.78 billion rials ($20.21 billion) from the same period a year ago, central bank data showed on Tuesday.