Some might know about this, but I just learned of it today: http://www.middleeastforex.com/index.php?section=391 Petty politics and diverging inflation rates are the main risks to GCCâs attempts to set up an EU-style monetary union by 2010, although the single currency plan still has a good chance of success. GCC, grouping Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, has already set up a customs union, and this month GCC chief Abdul-Rahman Al Attiya said the currency plans were on track.
It might be important to someone trading middle eastern currencies. A member currency might disappear and be replaced by the currency of this monetary union. I think about their central bank. Does it charge interest? I recall hearing that charging interest is not permitted under Islam. Some of these countries produce a great supply of oil. Will they price oil in their currency? Will the USA have to exchange US Dollars for this new currency to buy oil? What if the USA needs to borrow from the arab monetary union? What interest rate is the USA to pay? We might have to repay the debt in the same currency that we borrowed. The USA can't print dollars and pay the debt in that instance.