He said the appetite of the region as a whole was to increasingly to diversify exposure.
“The investment strategies of Dubai Holdings entities, Kuwait Investment Authority, and so on . . . you will see a lot of these bodies start looking at Eastern Asia more aggressively along with a lot of institutional and private investors in the region,” al-Shaali said.
Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf Arab economy, as well as Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain, have ruled out changes to their dollar pegs, adopted by some of the Gulf states in preparation for a monetary union planned for 2010.
But the UAE and Kuwait, the third largest economy, have questioned the peg after the dollar fell about 10% against the euro last year.
A Reuters poll of 15 analysts last week showed Gulf Arab states will probably not meet the deadline for currency union as member nations grapple with inflation and budget criteria, but Kuwait may revalue its currency before then.
Twelve of the 15 analysts, surveyed between March 16 and 20, said it was unlikely or very unlikely that the six members of the GCC, representing the world’s biggest oil exporting region, would meet its single currency target in three years.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper has reported that the International Monetary Fund will say further depreciation by the U.S. dollar is needed to help correct global imbalances in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO).
Quoting from a draft of the WEO, the paper said the Washington-based fund argued “extraordinarily aggressively” for a correction in exchange rates, above all so as to reduce the massive U.S. current account deficit.
The dollar, which slid to a two-year low against the euro last week, should continue to depreciate in the mid-term, while the yen, the Chinese yuan and currencies of oil-exporting countries in the Middle East should all appreciate, the draft WEO said.
The WEO, which is due to be published in mid-April, will add that there is no great need for further interest rate increases by the European Central Bank, according to the paper.
Thanks to solid growth in the 13-nation eurozone, the ECB will not create problems by raising its main lending rate to about 4% from 3.75% at present, the IMF said.
“The investment strategies of Dubai Holdings entities, Kuwait Investment Authority, and so on . . . you will see a lot of these bodies start looking at Eastern Asia more aggressively along with a lot of institutional and private investors in the region,” al-Shaali said.
Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf Arab economy, as well as Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain, have ruled out changes to their dollar pegs, adopted by some of the Gulf states in preparation for a monetary union planned for 2010.
But the UAE and Kuwait, the third largest economy, have questioned the peg after the dollar fell about 10% against the euro last year.
Twelve of the 15 analysts, surveyed between March 16 and 20, said it was unlikely or very unlikely that the six members of the GCC, representing the world’s biggest oil exporting region, would meet its single currency target in three years.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper has reported that the International Monetary Fund will say further depreciation by the U.S. dollar is needed to help correct global imbalances in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO).
Quoting from a draft of the WEO, the paper said the Washington-based fund argued “extraordinarily aggressively” for a correction in exchange rates, above all so as to reduce the massive U.S. current account deficit.
The dollar, which slid to a two-year low against the euro last week, should continue to depreciate in the mid-term, while the yen, the Chinese yuan and currencies of oil-exporting countries in the Middle East should all appreciate, the draft WEO said.
The WEO, which is due to be published in mid-April, will add that there is no great need for further interest rate increases by the European Central Bank, according to the paper.
Thanks to solid growth in the 13-nation eurozone, the ECB will not create problems by raising its main lending rate to about 4% from 3.75% at present, the IMF said.
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