A SPECIALIST DIAGNOSES THE “REAL REASON” FOR THE DOLLAR’S RISE… AND THE CENTRAL BANK IS “RELUCTANT” ABOUT IT – URGENT
Today, Friday (October 13, 2023), the economic affairs specialist, Nabil Jabbar Al-Tamimi, revealed the reason for the rise in the dollar exchange rate, in light of the volume of daily “black transfers.”
Al-Tamimi told “Baghdad Today”, “The Central Bank of Iraq is failing to solve the problem of remittances with Iran, and the rise in the exchange rate is related to pressures on foreign exchange in the market and the continuation of black remittances.”
He stated, “Up to 30 million dollars a day cross the border as (black transfers) to feed remittance requests for trade with Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey as well, and the fluctuation will continue unless the remittance crisis with Iran is resolved in the first place and a suitable transfer mechanism is found for merchants, even if they are in other currencies.” other than the dollar.
(This article speaks directly to another article we read about the customs and tariffs issues. Simply put, not being on the Global Foreign Exchange such as FOREX, is putting damper on Iraq’s ability to conduct foreign trade with a multiple of other foreign currencies. Iraq MUST soon move back to FOREX or these problems will only worsen. You see Iraq keeps kicking the can down the road but they know what they must do. They can complain and complain about the issues with the dollar. The FACT still stands that to get off the dollar they must be able to go a central point of exchange. Its easy to trade with a sole source of currency but when you are dealing with potential of hundreds of currencies then what do you do? )
The $30 million per day is exactly equivalent to the cash sales that the Central Bank sells daily and is supposed to be intended for travelers.
Experts point out that some of these cash sales allocated to travelers leak into the black market and are purchased by merchants to finance their trade with countries banned from the dollar, led by Iran, from which Iraq’s annual import volume amounts to approximately 10 billion dollars.
Others warned of the repercussions of some banks not handing over dollars to “travelers,” while stressing that the continuation of the matter would lead to an increase in demand for the dollar in the parallel market and thus an increase in the exchange rate.
Many private banks and exchange companies are accused of being involved in smuggling the dollar, leaking it to the black market, and seizing large amounts of currency auction sales. The accusations also targeted the National Bank of Iraq (Jordan) of seizing 70% of the Central Bank’s daily dollar sales.
The dollar exchange rate witnessed a noticeable increase in the past few days, exceeding the barrier of 160 thousand dinars per 100 dollars, while the Central Bank took many measures and decisions to prevent the circulation of the dollar in local markets above the official price (1320), but to no avail, despite the fact that the dollar is its only source. The Central Bank, although those who take the dollar, namely private banks and exchange companies, are known to it, but it is unable to control them and oblige them not to leak dollars through fake transfers, according to observers.