Syria to peg currency to SDR  

Syria plans to remove the pound from its U.S. dollar peg and link it to the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights (SDR) in the first half of 2007, the central bank governor told Reuters on Monday.


"We will change the peg for the Syrian pound from the (U.S. dollar) to the SDR. At present the Syrian pound is pegged to the dollar at 52 pounds to the dollar. We plan to peg it to the SDR in the first half of 2007, perhaps in May or June of next year," Adib Mayaleh, Governor of the Central of Syria, said on the sidelines of a Commonwealth Business Council investment summit.

"We decided to do this because this IMF basket reflects our trade composition," he said. The SDR consists of 44 per cent U.S. dollars, 34 per cent euros, and 11 per cent each of yen and the British pound.