(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Amid market speculations that Gulf oil producers may abandon their fixed exchange rates with the US dollar due to continuing lower oil prices the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) reassured that the sultanate will not change Omani rial's peg with the US dollar.

'I assure we will continue the peg with dollar. There is not going to be any devaluation and we are not going to change the currency peg' Saeed Mohamed al Shidhani vice president – financial services and operations at the CBO said on Tuesday.

Shidhani was speaking to media-persons on the sidelines of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) workshop organised by Crowe Horwath at Hormuz Grand hotel on Tuesday.

Speculation that the Gulf oil producers will abandon their fixed exchange rates surged in the past month as crude retreated below US$50 a barrel forcing Kazakhstan to adopt a free-floating currency on August 20.

Saudi Arabia will maintain the riyal's peg to the dollar as long as oil underpins the economy Saudi central bank Governor Fahad al Mubarak said on Sunday in a Bloomberg Television interview in Ankara Turkey.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that the contracts used to bet on a devaluation of the UAE dirham fell from a six-year high after Saudi Arabia with which it coordinates monetary policy said it would maintain its currency's peg to the dollar.