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Dubai: Twice as many Gulf executives believe their businesses will benefit if the region's governments unshackle their currencies from the tumbling US dollar as think they will suffer, a survey by HSBC showed.
Five of the six countries covered by HSBC's quarterly Gulf business confidence survey maintain a fixed exchange rate to the US dollar. The sixth - Kuwait - dropped its peg in May. Saudi Arabia and the four other Gulf oil-producers have ruled out following Kuwait's lead, saying the dollar-peg has been a cornerstone of economic stability.
However, fewer than one in five of the executives believe their business will be hurt by the demise of dollar-pegged exchange rates, HSBC said in a statement yesterday.
The survey showed 39 per cent of executives believed that removing the dollar peg would have a "beneficial effect" on their businesses and 18 per cent thought it would have a negative effect, the bank said.
The survey covered 1,014 executives in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.
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