KUWAIT - Saudi Arabia's top monetary
official said denominating oil sales in dollars does not
necessarily mean that payments from those sales are received in
dollars or that investments would be done in dollars either.
"The pricing issue has no relationship with the payment
issue and doesn't have a relationship with the investment
issue," said Muhammad al-Jasser, Governor of the Saudi Arabian
Monetary Agency, at a financial conference. "There is a big
mixup between the three roles for any currency."
Debate over the dollar's role as the denominating currency
for oil sales globally flared in October. Officials from several
members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
have since denied a report that there has been a secret debate
to replace the U.S. dollar as a currency for trading oil.
"The dollar is the most used currency in pricing all imports
and exports, especially for commodities and not only in the Gulf
-- even the Europeans still price in dollar," Jasser told
reporters.
Jasser was responding to journalists' questions about
whether it was possible that Gulf oil exporters would reconsider
the issue of pricing oil in dollars.
"But pricing in dollar does not necessarily mean that you
receive in dollar and does not necessarily mean that you will
invest in dollar," he said
"That's why I think that it is important not to confuse
between the three roles for any currency, whether it is the
dollar, sterling, the yen or the euro," Jasser said.