The Australian dollar weakened today after the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia monetary policy meeting indicated that there’ll be no increase of the interest rates in the near future.

The Australia dollar gained against the US dollar and the Japanese yen after the minutes of the central bank’s monetary policy meeting suggested that an increase of the interest rates is possible “at some point”.

The Great Britain pound strengthened against the US dollar and the euro today after Bank of England policy maker Andrew Sentance explained in his today speech the necessity of raising the interest rates.

The Japanese currency started the week losing versus the greenback as the U.S. economy recovers, reiterating speculations that Fed stimulus may be lifted in a foreseeable future.

GCC states — Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — decided to cut their deposit rates from 3.50% to 3.00% today, following the yesterday’s interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

The government of Dubai, U.A.E. largest emirate, is against the currency revaluation and is pro dirham’s peg to the U.S. dollar, according to Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the member of the Dubai’s Board of Executive Council.

Financial experts from the Standard Chartered PLC expect a coordinated scrapping of the peg to the U.S. dollar from the monetary authorities of the Middle Eastern countries – Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

After two other European central banks decided to hold their current interest rates, Czech and Polish banks chose to follow the same way and didn’t change their reference interest rates despite the fact that they both raised the rates at the end of November.

Swedish central bank left the main interest rate unchanged at 4.00% during the meeting of the Executive Board on 18 December.

Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian Central Bank) decided today during the Monetary Council’s meeting to hold the main refinancing interest rate at the same level — 7.50%, after the last cut made from 7.75% by MNB on September 25.