There shall be one currency

Few people in Europe have noticed so far that there is a process going on here in the Middle East that will create a new currency potentially rivalling the Euro and the US dollar.

Since 2001, the GCC countries are working on replacing their dinar, dirham or riyal with a common currency. Originally, that project was set to be finished by January 1, 2010. While it's been delayed, the region's leaders yesterday announced an important decision: they finally agreed on where the GCC central bank would be located. And it's not Bahrain or Dubai, with their reputation as financial places; but Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - which is not surprising if you consider that Saudi Arabia is not only the largest, but also the strongest country in the area in terms of economy and political power.

It remains uncertain though, when exactly the currency will be introduced, whether it should be pegged to the US dollar - and how it will be called. Some analysts, apparently, have suggested the term "khaliji", which means "of the Gulf", as using an existing name would probably not find agreement from all members of the union. Watch out for more debates about this!

Seeing the economic power of the member states, I think we should expect a strong player in the world markets when the new currency is finally introduced.