June 01, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

RIYADH, May 31: Despite growing speculation that some other Gulf Arab states may join Kuwait in de-pegging their currencies with the US dollar, Saudi Arabia has vowed not to end its currency peg to the dollar or revalue the riyal, the Saudi finance minister told a joint press conference with the visiting US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Jeddah on Saturday.

“As we have said many times we have no intention of de-pegging or of revaluation,” Al-Assaf said at the press conference.

“That is a sovereign decision,” Paulson said, when asked about Saudi Arabia uncoupling the riyal. “It’s a decision to be made by Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region.’’ “The peg has served this country and the region well,” Paulson said.

The US Treasury Secretary is on a visit for meeting with the finance ministers of the oil producing cash rich counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states. In the wake of the visits analysts foresee no immediate end to the regional currencies’ link to the dollar.

Paulson arrived late on Friday on a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where officials said he was to stress US openness to the Middle East investment, dangers to economic growth from surging oil prices, and the fight against financing terrorism.

The visit offers the Treasury chief the opportunity of an update on the fixed exchange rates retained by most of the oil- rich nations in the region. Officials in April agreed to strengthen their efforts to establish a currency union by 2010, diminishing speculation on a quick change in the dollar pegs.