Saleh: There is no problem with liquidity at all, and what happened in the American markets requires caution., 9 AUGUST

 The financial and economic advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, denied the existence of a problem with the cash liquidity in the Iraqi currency.

Saleh said in a press statement, "There is no problem with liquidity at all because it is covered by foreign currency," indicating that "the mechanism for obtaining cash liquidity is that oil sales are converted into US dollars, and when the government needs the dinar for internal exchange, it exchanges oil sales for dollars and goes to the cash issuing bank, which is the central bank, to give it the currency."

He pointed out that "the Central Bank, in order to maintain market stability, sells foreign currency to the market through a currency sale window and auction, to withdraw liquidity again and then repeat it again to achieve natural growth in the issued currency."

Regarding the size of the monetary mass, Saleh explained that “there was an increase in liquidity during the year, as the issued currency became around 100 trillion dinars, after it was 80 trillion dinars,” stressing that “these booms do not have an impact as long as they are covered by foreign currency.”

The Prime Minister's financial advisor believes that economic circles around the world were surprised by the sharp fluctuations and declines in the US stock market amid a wave of panic over fears of a possible recession in the world's largest economy, and that "these declines were based on a combination of local and global economic factors that led to a weakening of investor confidence in the performance of the US economy. If the situation continues for six consecutive months, the recession will turn into a major depression that will hit all economies around the world."

Saleh pointed out that “the US Energy Information Administration had previously announced that it expected average prices to reach about $89 per barrel for the rest of 2024, but there is a gradual decline in global oil prices, which has begun to coincide with the decline in the value of financial assets in the US markets, especially the decline in the benchmark oil (Brent crude), which ranges around $76 per barrel for futures contracts after reaching nearly $88 per barrel last June, which requires more caution and economic precaution.”   link