AL-SUDANI SAYS THAT HIS GOVERNMENT WILL END THE DOLLAR CRISIS AFTER AN AGREEMENT WITH IRAN, 13 SEPT

 AL-SUDANI SAYS THAT HIS GOVERNMENT WILL END THE DOLLAR CRISIS AFTER AN AGREEMENT WITH IRAN

Monday, Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani announced new steps in the issue of the dollar exchange rate crisis, and said that these steps would “break down” the parallel market.

Al-Sudani spoke about the currency market file during a meeting with a number of media professionals held at the government palace, indicating that “the dollar issue requires reform of the banking and financial sector, and is linked to taxes, customs, and fees to protect products and economic policies.”

Al-Sudani said that this sector “has not witnessed any reform since 2003, and it was necessary to adhere to global compliance standards, which were supposed to be implemented in the previous government,” noting that “the decision to reduce the exchange rate to 1,320 dinars per dollar was a correction to the decision to raise “The previous exchange rate, which was not well thought out.”

Al-Sudani stated that the existence of “the parallel market is linked to a number of commercial operations, including trade with Iran,” and in this regard, he explained that merchants cannot send money legally in light of the American sanctions on Tehran, “which forces them to deal with the parallel market.”

The Prime Minister confirmed that “the Iranian side informed the government in the last meeting to stop dealing in the dollar, and to replace it with the euro, the yuan, the dirham, the Iraqi dinar, or the Iranian toman,” and revealed that there is “a mechanism that the Central Bank of Iraq and its Iranian counterpart are working on to prepare a plan to regulate this trade.”

Al-Sudani said that the new mechanism with Iran “will break the back of the parallel market,” while he explained that other problems associated with the parallel market relate to the trade in tobacco, gold, and medicines.

The Prime Minister indicated that “his government is working to solve the problems and organize the work of major traders in these sectors in preparation for including them in the procedures for purchasing the dollar from the Central Bank.”