Oman Central bank board term extended by 5 years

Oman Central bank board term extended by 5 years

The terms of members of Oman's central bank board have been extended by a further five years without any changes, a senior central bank official said on Wednesday.

June 20, 2012 5:42 by Reuters

The terms of members of Oman’s central bank board have been extended by a further five years without any changes, a senior central bank official said on Wednesday.

“There are no changes at all. The same board members were renewed by the royal decree,” Hilal al-Barwani, vice president in charge of banking oversight at the central bank, told Reuters.

Oman’s ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said remains the board’s chairman, while Ali bin Mohammed bin Moosa stays as his deputy. Other members include Yahya al-Jabri, Sultan al-Habsi, who represents the finance ministry, Hamood Sangour al-Zadjali, who serves as the central bank’s executive president, Mohsen bin Haider bin Darwish, and Hatim al-Shanfri, state news agency ONA reported. The board’s new term started on June 11.

Oman, a small non-OPEC oil exporter, pegs its rial currency to the U.S. dollar along with most Gulf Arab crude producers. That limits the flexibility of the central bank’s policy as it needs to keep policy rates close to U.S. benchmarks to avoid excessive pressures on the peg.

(Reporting by Martin Dokoupil; Editing by Andrew Torchia)