We are at the end of June, and Sunday, June 30, is mid year, an opportune time. Almost daily there is a cascade of news in articles from Iraq...IMO, June may end with great news, and, if not with what we seek, but maybe news that brings us yet closer to what we seek...Now ATMs are out and official WTO full member status as of July 18.IMO, the window seems to be getting smaller and startup of those idle ATMs dispensing and working maybe closer! IMO.
Holly
...based on Iraq’s progress things are definitely on track to being done...I see a culmination of this sometime this summer and it could go now or it could be later, no one and I mean no one will know when...We are definitely in the end time of all of this.
Suzie
WTO Article: "FORMAL WORKING PARTY MEETINGS 2024 18 July 2024 - THU 18 JUL 10:00 Working Party on the Accession of Iraq" This is good news for Iraq on their accession to the WTO. Hopefully they will have or shown us by that time a new rate for the dinar. While international trade and economics are the important criteria for membership, having an international tradable currency is not a "cast in stone" issue but I certainly would think Iraq WOULD want that for credibility purposes if nothing else...
Today, Saturday, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohsen Al-Mandalawi considered the US Congress’ draft against the head of the judiciary, Judge Faiq Zaidan, a dangerous precedent and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
Al-Mandalawi’s office stated in a statement received by Al-Rabaa, “The latter considered what was reported by American media regarding Republican Congressman (Mike Waltz) submitting a draft law amendment and including a clause affecting the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Faiq Zaidan, as a dangerous precedent to be added to the record of actions of the Biden government, which supported In public, it is the most horrific mass massacre committed by Zionist gangs against the people of Gaza, and today they threaten to attack the sovereignty of states and their symbols without a legal justification that allows them to do so.”
According to the statement, Al-Mandalawi called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “move through its diplomatic means and deliver a direct message that Iraq, with all its authorities, rejects such offensive interventions, which came from the American Congressman, describing them as tools of influence for other countries,” stressing that “Iraq is a sovereign country, and its relations with… “All countries are built on the foundation of mutual respect.”
He stressed that “the bill that is to be submitted to Congress by the Republican representative, if approved, will constitute a dangerous turning point that will affect, in one way or another, the nature of bilateral relations between the two countries.”
Al-Mandlawi stressed the full support of the House of Representatives for the “Chief of the Judicial Authority, and its absolute rejection of any abuse of his authority and that of all authorities,” noting “the keenness of the Presidency of the Council to follow up on these illegal actions and take all necessary measures to reject them.”
The four factors that have or can affect the Iraqi dinar currency...The first...is the '24 budget...presents a significant issue for Iraq. The World Bank's assessment that Iraq needs an oil price of $90/barrel to meet budget requirements is a stark contrast to the current oil price of around $80...This ongoing issue boils down to how the World Bank reviews financial data and how Iraq view the same data. The second factor...until 2014 Iraq almost always created jobs for college graduates...In the eyes of Iraq, a government career is part of the benefits of being an oil rich county...One reason the budget is so large is that Iraq is budgeting for over 700,000 new government jobs.
The third factor...there are two exchange rates in Iraq...The official rate is round 1310 to $1.00. The market rate...fluctuates higher around, 1450 to $1.00 and cause issues, even protests. The market rate is the rate at which people live day-to-day... Because Iran and Syria need and want US dollars the US Federal Reserve has encouraged Iraq to rely more on the Iraqi dinar than the US dollar. This effort keeps Iraq out of trouble with the US Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury...The issue of the two exchange rates is expected to be resolved over time. As of January 1, 2024 all transactions are mandated to be conducted in Iraqi dinars and the gap between the official exchange rate and the market value is anticipated to decrease, offering a sense of stability
...This is the most concerning issue that is brewing. All oil revenue paid to OPEC is in US dollars...Iraq's oil revenue is received by the US Federal Reserve first and then allocated to Iraq...The fact there are backroom talks over the position of OPEC going forward leaves [us] concerned for Iraq's Financial safety especially if the country wants to receive oil revenues in the dinar currency. However this would be one of the best steps to strengthen Iraq's currency...OPECs power is being threatened from within and this could lead to an uncomfortable situation for Iraq.
The General Authority of Customs announced, on Sunday, the completion of the first phase of the automation project in 8 centers, and while it was scheduled to complete it throughout its centers in Iraq, it revealed its revenues within 5 months.
The head of the authority, Hassan Al-Okaili, said, in a statement reported by the official news agency, and seen by “Economy News”, that “the authority has started implementing the Scuda system at some border ports since last October,” noting that “the first phase of automation has been completed in 8 customs centers out of a total of 25 centers.”
He added, “The importance of the outlets is measured through the most revenue ports through which many goods enter,” noting, “the second phase will see the automation of the rest of the centers in a time limit that extends for the first half of next year,” pointing out that “automation contributed to increasing revenues.”
He stated, “There are a number of measures carried out by the General Authority of Customs, including reform at the institutional level and at the level of procedures and capacity-building of cadres,” noting, “The Authority is witnessing today a real technological revolution by switching to electronic platforms and modern systems such as the Scuda system.”
He pointed out that “the Authority’s revenues in 2022 reached 800 billion dinars, and in 2023 we achieved one trillion and 33 billion dinars at an increase of 28 percent,” pointing out that “during the first five months of this year, we achieved revenues of 800 billion dinars.”
He expressed his hope that “the revenue rate will rise by the end of this year to 200 percent from what it was in 2022,” explaining that “the measures adopted – foremost of which is automation – reflected positively and clearly on the percentage of revenues and on the level of revenues that entered as revenues to the state treasury.”
Al-Okaili stressed that “every new system that is applied faces a set of challenges, perhaps the most prominent of which is the weakness of infrastructure with the application of modern technologies that have not been previously used,” pointing out that “the Prime Minister directed that the General Authority of Customs be provided with experts and specialists from the Ministry of Higher Education; to strengthen cadres and strengthen the work teams working in this field.”
On the establishment of staff courses to work on the ŠKODA system, Al-Okaili stressed that “a national team of employees of the General Authority of Customs and a team of employees working in this field was built, where they received high-level training by United Nations experts, a total of 48 employees,” pointing out that “the end users of the EsyCUDA system were about 3,300 people between government departments, clearance companies and traders, and work is still continuing on training.”
He stated, “The training is taking place in every border outlet within which the system is applied,” explaining that “during the last three months we have worked training in Baghdad for those who have headquarters in the capital and are difficult for them to travel to the city of Basra or Ramadi.”
He pointed out that “the Scuda system did not work today with all its functions, as one of the functions of the system is to balance between facilitating and facilitating trade and monitoring and protecting the country from products that are not suitable for consumption from smuggling operations,” explaining that “one of the features of the system is that it works with artificial intelligence, where the features of the system will be fully activated in the next stage, including the selective process of detecting goods and storing inspection images of goods so that the system can distinguish between one image and another based on artificial intelligence.”
The ATM machines, they're all poised like centurions that are standing there. These ATMs are guarding the lower notes. It's time for all of this to come out now. It's just the budget we are waiting for. We're not waiting for any laws, we're not waiting for any new procedures.
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Walkingstick
Question: "Why haven't we had a new exchange rate?"
It's always the same answer, it's the corruption from Iran that steals from the auctions from the CBI...government through the political people that they have.
You can stop asking question about the budget. It's all there. Concerning the tripartite budget, everything...all the projects...cities, new exchange rate, lower notes, ATM machines, contracts, everything, it is all there...It is a fact...The GOI has the budget and they have the new exchange rate from the CBI.
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The Iraqi citizens are being given their education, not our education. They are telling the Iraqi citizens what they need to hear at this moment in the monetary reform process...
$4.9 billion for a pipeline in the budget...Didn't you say it was 6.5 billion dinars?
'Yeah.' And you're saying it equals $4.9 billion? 'Yeah.'...
They told the world...6.5 billion IQDs is equivalent to $4.9 billion...6.5 divided by 4.9 it comes out to 1.32 or $0.76...You don't have to think anymore after this...That's billions to billions not trillions to millions. That's a rate change...You're telling the world this.
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[Iraqi bank friend]
Aki in Dearborn...he's got one [new ATM machine like the ones delivered in Iraq].
They put these ATM machines out in order to put out the lower notes...These ATM machines will teach the citizens about the lower denoms and it will teach the bank employees about this as well too...There's going to be a stampede of people that will be rushing into the Iraqi dinars...These ATM machines are now being impregnated...
When they load or if they have loaded them up [new ATMs], the note count has already been determined. The note count for each individual machine has already been accounted for...
These machines will be the state of the art...State of the art has nothing to do with a program rate. If it was they would have had the state-or-the-art with the program rate for the last 20 years...The CBI is desperately trying to put out the least amount of currency at the onset before they release the new exchange rate. Because once they do this, if needed, they will be able to add to this note count as the value is needed.
These ATM machines have the capability to recognize the lower denoms that are soon to be passed out to the citizens in order to add value to their currency and to go hand in hand with a new exchange rate of the lower notes...These ATM machines have the software for the lower notes.
But does it have the lower notes in these ATM machines?
