Prospects for monetary union remain bleak

It has been two years since the Gulf Monetary Council (GMC) – central to the plan for a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) monetary union – was established on 27 March 2010, and well over a decade since the project to introduce a Gulf common currency began. In recent months, a few small steps have been taken by the four Gulf states still on board: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. But global economic woes, regional political uncertainties and fundamental questions about the plan’s economic viability leave the prospects of Gulf monetary integration remote.