Establishing Monetary Union in the Gulf Cooperation Council: What Lessons for Regional Cooperation?

Abstract

The paper reviews the experience of regional economic cooperation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Conceived as a regional security alliance, the GCC has evolved to become a common market in the making. All six GCC countries participate in the common market project, and additional countries may join. But the timing of introducing a common currency, initially targeted for 2010, remains uncertain, especially in the light of the ongoing euro area crisis. Two countries have withdrawn from the common currency project; another has ceased to comply with a prerequisite for entering the monetary union. But the GCC is not the same as the GCC Monetary Union, nor should the success of the GCC be judged solely on the basis of how many member states end up participating in the single currency.

Keywords: monetary union, Gulf Cooperation Council, regional cooperation, common market, common currency, single currency, euro area

JEL Classification: F15, F36, F55, O53