Kuwait’s trade surplus has narrowed down to an estimated $8.8 billion in the year 2001, due to the state's declining oil revenues, the result of the worldwide drop in oil prices, stated a recent Global Investment House report.
Simultaneously, the state’s foreign currency reserves continued to increase, reaching close to $10 billion by the end of the same year. Kuwait pledged last year to peg the local dinar to the US dollar from the start of 2003 as part of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) moves to create a single currency by 2010. The GCC customs union also comes to effect in 2003.
Heads of state from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) signed a customs and monetary union agreement late last December, in a bid to forge a weighty economic bloc. The GCC customs union is expected to open the way for the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), the region's biggest trading partner. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
