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Summary
The dollar's future as the world's top currency was thrown into doubt on Tuesday as a report said Arab states had launched secret moves with China and Russia to stop using the greenback for oil trading. Arab states have launched moves with China, Russia, Japan and France to stop using the dollar for oil trades, British daily The Independent reported on Tuesday, but this was denied by Kuwait. It comes as the United Nations on Tuesday called for a new global reserve currency to end dollar supremacy which has allowed the United States the privilege of building a huge trade deficit. The Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk wrote in his paper: In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning -- along with China, Russia, Japan and France -- to end dollar dealings for oil. They would instead switch to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar, added Fisk. Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah denied the report, but on the foreign exchange market the dollar fell.
