Having independent Palestinian currency still unattainable

Palestinian National Authority (PNA) monetary department officials said Sunday that the Palestinians' dream of having their own independent currency "is still unattainable," adding that the PNA has carried out certain steps in this respect, but still slowly.

PNA monetary department chief Jihad al-Wazir said in a statement that his department is currently working intensively to finalize establishing the Palestinian monetary system in a bid to establish the Central Palestinian Bank, which is responsible for issuing the new stable Palestinian currency.

Right now, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are using in their daily life various kinds of currencies, mainly Israeli shekel, U.S. dollar, euro, the Jordanian dinar and the Egyptian pound. The Palestinians used to have their own Palestinian pound before 1948.

The monetary department officials link between fulfilling all the needed terms and conditions for issuing the national Palestinian currency with the aim that was authored by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad last August to build up the establishments of the independent Palestinian statehood.

"Since the beginning of last year, we have been working on a three-year-plan aiming at setting up a Palestinian monetary system that lead to the establishment of the central bank of Palestine that is able to issue our own independent Palestinian currency," said al-Wazir.


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