Monday, July 24, 2023

"DISCUSSION OF MARKET STABILIZATION MEASURES WITH CBI GOVERNOR" , 24 JULY

Al-Sudani discusses market stabilization measures with CBI governor

Shafaq News / Iraq's Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, met today with the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, along with key advisors and the Director General of the Investment Department at the Central Bank of Iraq

During the meeting, they discussed the Central Bank's measures to ensure currency stability in the Iraqi market, as well as plans to reform, develop, and empower the banking sector. These measures are aimed at empowering the banking sector to play a pivotal role in achieving sustainable development and effectively tackling various challenges.

The Prime Minister was briefed on the significant support offered by the Central Bank, which notably include enabling small merchants and individual importers to pay for their imports without the requirement of establishing a company. This initiative is facilitated through government and private banks that maintain direct relations with correspondent banks.

Al-Sudani instructed the Central Bank of Iraq to make more efforts for streamlining procedures for citizens. It was emphasized that the Council of Ministers' decision regarding the payment of installments for investment projects would be fully implemented. This implementation will allow citizens to make payments in Iraqi dinars for the values of housing units they had previously purchased in foreign currency.

He instructed his team to apply Article 48 of the Federal Budget Law. This measure aims to streamline and simplify tax procedures while also ensuring they are not tied to international transfers.

The Central Bank of Iraq will be implementing measures to compensate citizens and companies who bought US dollars at the parallel market rate. The Central Bank will deduct the difference from banks and exchange companies that sold US dollars above the official rate, if the purchase can be verified.

The Governor of the Central Bank of a Iraq announced the CBI's plan to resume selling US dollars through licensed banks in Nineveh Governorate.

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Iraqi Parliamentary Finance Committee Reveals New Details about Central Bank Governor's Hosting Session

Shafaq News/ A member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament revealed new details and the "backstage" of the recent hosting session with the Central Bank Governor, Ali al-Allaq.

Ahmed Mazhar al-Jubouri, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, told Shafaq News Agency, "The hosting session discussed the recent U.S. sanctions on Iraqi banks, in addition to the exchange rate file, and the decline of the dinar amid the dollar's rise."


Al-Jubouri added, "The talk of the Central Bank Governor during the hosting session does not bode well, and the solutions proposed by the Central Bank regarding the crisis are merely formal." He confirmed, "The bank will lose $140 million monthly due to the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury on Iraqi banks."


"The money that the bank will lose was previously sold by the Central Bank to the banks recently hit by sanctions," adding that, "The sanctions will negatively reflect on the market, and the dollar exchange rate against the dinar will continue to rise in the coming days."


Earlier in the day, the Parliamentary Finance Committee hosted Central Bank Governor Ali al-Allaq to discuss the banking sector, the rise in dollar exchange rates against the dinar, and the reasons for U.S. sanctions imposed on a number of Iraqi banks.


The U.S. dollar exchange rates continued to rise against the Iraqi dinar on Monday in the markets of Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, with the closing of the exchange, touching 154 thousand dinars for every $100.


This increase began after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 14 Iraqi banks on Wednesday, July 19, in a campaign aimed at preventing the dollar from reaching Iran.



https://www.shafaq.com/en/Economy


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