Economist identifies weaknesses in banking system: 80% of money supply in citizens’ homes – Urgent, 21 AUGUST

  Economist identifies weaknesses in banking system: 80% of money supply in citizens’ homes – Urgent

Financial and economic affairs expert Alaa Jaloub Al-Fahd revealed today, Sunday (August 18, 2024), a weakness in the Iraqi banking system, while confirming the presence of 80% of the cash mass in citizens’ homes.

Al-Fahd told Baghdad Today, "The amount of cash liquidity pumped into the local market is estimated at the size of annual government spending, and this includes salaries, wages, and others. It constitutes a large percentage and is considered the citizen's purchasing power."

He added that "the rise in income levels after 2003, due to the increase in salaries, led to an increase in purchasing power, and this led to an increase in the level of demand for real estate and other things," indicating that "the rise in real estate prices has nothing to do with the issue of the increase in the citizen's cash liquidity or not, because this increase is dependent on the issue of supply and demand."

Al-Fahd explained that "any increase or decrease in the volume of liquidity is estimated by the size of real spending and the size of savings, considering that the citizen's income is divided between consumption and savings, and the higher the savings rate, the more it is supposed to be exploited economically through investment."

He pointed out that "there is a weakness in the banking system's ability to absorb all the cash available to citizens, as most of this cash is inside homes, far from banks," noting that "the amount of cash available to citizens in homes is estimated at more than 80% of the issued cash mass, and this constitutes a weakness in the banking system, in withdrawing that mass and investing it."

It is noteworthy that financial expert Saleh Al-Masrafi confirmed on Tuesday (August 6, 2024) that Iraq is among the highest countries in the Middle East in the file of hoarding money, while he diagnosed a grave error in the Iraqi banking system .

The banker said in an interview with Baghdad Today, "The accumulations that have continued for many years have pushed citizens to lose confidence in banks and resort to hoarding money in their homes," indicating that "its percentage reaches 70% of financial liquidity, and these are large numbers that indicate that we are among the highest countries in the Middle East in hoarding money ."

He added that "hoarding money in the financial concept is a grave mistake that will confuse the financial process and reduce the government's ability to provide liquidity to pay salaries," explaining that "resorting to electronic payment is a step in the right direction, but the most important thing is withdrawing liquidity, and there are several ways ."

The banker pointed out that "the recent issuance of treasury bonds is a correct decision, but the media propaganda to create a culture of safe investment in the street is very weak, and this is what creates low rates of dealing with them, even though the interest rates are attr active ."

He stressed the "necessity of seeking to expand the circle of withdrawing liquidity from homes and creating a movement of money that contributes to increasing the recovery of investment and granting government loans, especially with the presence of requests that exceed by 5 times the amount of money allocated for loans in any sector, especially housing."   link