Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Government Acknowledges “Failure” To Control Dollar Exchange Rate, 21 AUGUST

 Monday, 08-19-2024, PM 10:53   Karar Al-Asadi   Since the Central Bank started operating the electronic platform and the international financial transfer system “SWIFT” about a year ago, the dollar exchange rate in Iraq has not witnessed stability despite the government and Central Bank’s attempts to control the exchange rate in parallel markets.

In this context, member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Mustafa Sand, held the government and the Central Bank responsible for the failure to control the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar today, Monday.

Today, Monday, the dollar prices decreased with the opening of the Al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya stock exchanges in Baghdad, where it recorded 149,500 dinars for every 100 dollars, while the exchange rates in the exchange shops in the local markets in Baghdad witnessed a decrease, where the selling price reached 150,000 dinars, and the buying price reached 148,000 dinars for every 100 dollars.

Sand said in a press statement that “the government did not succeed in controlling the dollar exchange rate due to the policies of the US Federal Reserve,” noting that “the Iraqi side’s discussions with the American side did not achieve any positive results except for a protocol meeting with Biden that did not exceed 20 minutes.”

He pointed out that "there is American guardianship to bring in the Jordan National Bank and its acquisition of hard currency."

On July 9, Parliamentary Finance Committee member Raed Al-Maliki confirmed that the failure of the Central Bank’s measures and the “government’s measures” and its advisors to achieve stability for the dinar and reduce the gap between the two prices costs the state huge sums of money (trillions) that are wasted outside the budget,

and billions that go into the pockets of corrupt people whose addresses are many, and the people bear a great burden as a result of the reliance of the prices of most goods on the exchange rate in the parallel market, which is much higher than the official selling price.”

On July 2, the Prime Minister’s financial advisor, Mazhar Mohammed Saleh, confirmed that the suspension of the electronic platform was part of a test aimed at controlling all financial transactions related to the dollar and preventing tourists from taking out the dollar, adding that closing the platform showed that the dollar was no longer able to rise, and that the Central Bank would reopen the platform on July 14 under close supervision.

On July 1, the Central Bank of Iraq issued a letter allowing Rashid Bank, Rafidain Bank, the Commercial Bank of Iraq, and airport exchange companies to sell the dollar at the official exchange rate to tourists starting next November.

The bank stressed that any currency exchange company that does not have branches at airports until November 11 can transfer its transactions to branches of one of the Rafidain or Rashid Banks or the Commercial Bank of Iraq, or work in partnership with exchange companies such as Al Rayan, Finjan, Sama Baghdad, and Al Sukkar, which currently have branches at airports.

Since the beginning of last year, Washington has intervened to limit the smuggling of dollars from Iraq, which led to the dollar price rising in the local market to a record level of 170,000 dinars per 100 dollars, due to the decline in the Central Bank’s sales of dollars, given its subjection to the international “SWIFT” financial system.

It is noteworthy that the Central Bank decided to finance trade in the euro, the Chinese yuan, the UAE dirham and the Indian rupee, in steps to reduce the demand for the dollar. https://non14.net/public/169430

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