Record oil prices provide protection against the weak U.S. dollar in Arab Gulf countries, which are not expected to price their oil in any other currency, and, with the exception of Kuwait, are unlikely to abandon the dollar peg for their currencies at this stage, according to analysts. The rise in oil prices over the past three years has offset the effect of the weak dollar on Arab Gulf economies, even though Gulf countries sell oil in U.S. dollars and have pegged their currencies to it, say economic analysts. "The weakness of the dollar is obviously impacting the way in which the economies perform," said HSBC's Middle East economist Simon Williams in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). "But when you have oil prices running at, what, two, three times their five, ten year average, the Gulf economies are going to do very very well. The UAE is still prospering, the UAE is still a very good place to be doing business. These are good times for the Gulf despite the weakness of the...