Are Kuwaiti Currency Moves Being Steered by the British?

May 21 (LPAC)--On Sunday, Kuwait, part of the five-state Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) removed its currency "peg" to the US dollar. This move both "throws plans for a Gulf currency union into doubt and rais[es] the prospect that other oil-producing states might abandon long held dollar pegs," in the words of the Financial Times . Of course, the real question is unasked by this London-based source: Is this a move actually steered by London, with the eye of pulling the rug out from under the US dollar? Although GCC general secretary Rahman al-Attiya discounted the possibility, this move by (former British "protectorate") Kuwait away from the currency peg, which had been in place since 2003, has already sparked calls in Jordan for them to follow Kuwait's move. The next GCC state to possibly "pull the peg" on the dollar would likely be the United Arab Emirates, another state experiencing high inflation and currency instability.

Meanwhile speculators have been "plough[ing] billions of dollars into the dinar" and probably the dirham of the UAE, over the last few months.