An Analytical View Of The International Monetary Fund Regarding The Government And Central Bank’s Actions To Recover The Iraqi Economy, 7 MARCH

 An Analytical View Of The International Monetary Fund Regarding The Government And Central Bank’s Actions To Recover The Iraqi Economy

Samir Al-Nusairi In light of the assessment by the experts of the International Monetary Fund mission of the measures taken by the government and the Central Bank, which contributed to preserving the transition of the Iraqi economy from a state of fragility to a gradual recovery during the second half of 2023, as it became clear that “growth in the non-oil sector rose strongly in the year 2023 by 6%.” % of the gross domestic product, with inflation declining to 4% after it was 7.5% at the beginning of the year.

This comes due to the Central Bank’s measures to control the general level of prices and reduce inflation, which is the most prominent monetary policy task that has been achieved, which is the lowest inflation rates achieved for the year 2023 in regional and Arab countries. It was achieved due to the efforts made in organizing the financing of foreign trade and cooperation with the government in securing basic foodstuffs and providing... Ration card materials at subsidized prices.

The occurrence of these developments is due to the stability of the foreign exchange market and the safety and transparency of 95% of foreign transfers to traders and importers via the electronic platform and at the official rate, in addition to opening direct dealings with up to 30 foreign and Arab correspondent banks and opening dealings in the local currencies of countries with which Iraq has important trade exchanges, such as China, Turkey and the Emirates. And India.

After some interruptions following the implementation of new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing controls on cross-border payments in November 2022, improved compliance with the new system and CBI initiatives to reduce transaction processing times led to a recovery in trade finance in the second half of 2023. .

The IMF welcomed "the initial steps taken towards establishing the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which is a critical tool for improving cash liquidity management." It is necessary to point out here the “efforts made by the Central Bank aimed at getting rid of surplus liquidity. The Central Bank increased the interest rate on monetary policy tools and raised mandatory reserve requirements. It also began issuing treasury bills with a maturity of 14 days last summer.”

Therefore, the Fund called for supporting the existing efforts of the Central Bank by consolidating unused government deposits in the unified treasury account, refraining from pro-cyclical financial policy, reducing dependence on monetary financing, and improving public debt management, and from an insightful view of the International Monetary Fund, it confirms However, the steps taken by the government and the Central Bank to accelerate the digital transformation of the economy, reduce dependence on cash and enhance financial inclusion, which supports the plans to launch a financial inclusion strategy.

Official statistics indicate that 558 government agencies deployed electronic payment tools in 2023, compared to 12 government agencies in 2022. The number of employee salary localization cards reached 8,653,000 cards, the number of issued cards was 17,822,310 cards, and the value of the use of electronic payment tools in 2023 amounted to approximately 12 million dollars through 32,842 transactions.   Views 76 03/07/2024 - https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=41207