The GCC is not ready for a single currency, Standard Chartered Bank's chief economist and group head of global research Gerard Lyons told MEED on 8 February in Dubai. 'In a single currency, one size fits all. I'm not convinced it fits here,' he said. 'You need monetary and financial infrastructure in place. It's more of an optimal currency region [than elsewhere], so theoretically it could work, but institutionally more needs to be done.' Optimal currency region theory states that an area primed for monetary union must have labour and capital mobility, price and wage flexibility and a fiscal transfer mechanism, including taxation redistribution. GCC countries have committed to launching a common currency in 2010. Central Bank of the UAE governor Sultan bin Nasser al-Suwaidi told MEED in December that the economic convergence criteria were complete but supervision, IT and technical issues, as well as political questions over a common currency, remained to be resolved (MEED 2:12:05).