Middle East business information

Merrill Lynch has said that Gulf countries are unlikely to come under pressure to abandon their currency pegs, as US interest rates remain low, Bloomberg has reported. The region's central banks have to limit monetary policy actions to stay in line with the US Federal Reserve, Merrill Lynch analyst, Turker Hamzaoglu said. Merrill doesn't expect the Fed to raise rates until 2011, he said, adding that the region will not to go back to strong growth before the next two to three years.