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| Dr Darwish and Diop are seen during the press conference yesterday |
A survey by the Social and Economic Research Institute (Sesri) at Qatar University has found that a good number of Gulf Co-operation Council nationals think that their countries will benefit from being members of the proposed GCC single currency and that the project will create faster economic growth in their respective countries.
The survey, which was conducted between December 2010 and January 2011 among a total of 2,692 respondents across five GCC countries - Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait - attempted to seek the opinions of the GCC citizens about the single currency, their awareness and knowledge of the project as well as their support of or opposition to the single currency project.
The survey found that majority of the citizens in Qatar (85%), Bahrain (82%), the UAE (84%) and Saudi Arabia (83%) believed that their countries would benefit from being a member of the GCC single currency while Kuwaitis, on the other hand are less certain about such benefit as 49% of the Kuwaiti respondents said that their country would benefit from being a member of the single currency.
“Except for Kuwaitis, the majority of the respondents in other four countries agreed that the introduction of the GCC single currency will foster economic growth in their countries with nearly two-thirds (64%) of Qataris and 54% of Emiratis strongly believe in this role of the single currency,” Sesri director Dr Darwish al-Emadi said yesterday.
He said that the optimism was less among the respondents in Kuwait as only 21% of the sample agreed to the idea that the GCC single currency will have such an impact on their country.
“Support for the project is highest among Qataris (90%), Saudis (72%), and Bahraini citizens (72%) while Emiratis (59%) and Kuwaitis (41%) expressed the lowest support for the project,” he said, adding: “Despite all the potential impact of the single currency on their respective countries, respondents of the survey recognised that introduction of the single currency may result in an imbalance of powers.”
Emiratis (84%) are likely to hold such a position as compared to Qataris (63%), Bahrainis (62%), and Saudis (62%).
When asked about the preferred name of the single currency, the results of the survey clearly indicate a preference for respondent’s home country currency name as respondents in Bahrain (35%), Kuwait (72%) would like the name to be the dinar, the majority of respondents in Qatar (58%) and in Saudi Arabia would like the name to be the riyal, whereas for Emiratis, half of the respondents would prefer the name dirham.
However, a neutral name - Khaliji - is being suggested, Dr Darwish mentioned.
