Greenback’s future as the world’s top currency was thrown into doubt on Tuesday as a report published in the UK’s Independent newspaper by Robert Frisk stated that Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan, Brazil and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies plus gold. But the report was denied by Kuwait, Japan, and reportedly by other nations.
According to Bloomberg, the Saudi Central Bank Minister Muhammad al-Jasser called the Independent’s piece on the secret meetings by finance ministers and central bank governors to end greenback’s oil trade, as “absolutely incorrect.”
Al-Jasser told reporters in Istanbul, where he’s attending an IMF summit, that there has been “absolutely nothing” of that nature discussed between Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Also today, several Arab officials in the Persian Gulf strongly denied the report, including Qatar’s oil minister who told Zawya Dow Jones he “had never heard of this or discussed this, not even secretly.”
The London-based newspaper said that Gulf oil producers and several other nations had a nine-year plan to phase out the dollar in oil trade.
Frisk however, insist his piece is based on facts. He says the phasing out of the dollar is no longer just talk but a project at this point.
