Frank26: "THE 2023 BUDGET IS BEING IMPLEMENTED"..............F26
The Minister of Finance directs the completion of funds and depositing them in the accounts of the spending units of the ministries and governorates
12/28/2023
Minister of Finance, Taif Sami: The continuation of the working hours of employees of the accounting and budget departments, the Central Bank of Iraq / the Department of Information Technology and Computers, and the branches of the Rafidain and Rasheed banks on the next Friday and Saturday, to complete the transfers for investment projects and include the salary differences and the associated transfers on current expenses, in addition to completing and releasing financing from...
It is accepted by the Accounting Department and deposited in the accounts of the spending units of ministries, governorates, and entities not affiliated with a ministry, in the branches of the relevant banks, including the Central Bank of Iraq. LINK
Many of my blog readers ask me: Why didn’t Iraq just take the needed steps right from the very beginning in January 2023 to put together foreign currency swap deals with other countries to pay for imports.
This way they wouldn’t have had to take an entire year to combat the parallel dollar market. To answer this question I must go a bit deep. I hope you don’t mind because I know many of you have limited attention spans.
I will tell you why. It is because since the sanctions, the US has held a strong grip on their economy and remember they still have to authorize the dollar shipments to Iraq to satisfy the demand for the dollar. This is like “blackmail” to get Iraq to go along with them even though they are now out of sanctions. So, in 2022 the US Treasury contracted with a software developer firm to build the “electronic platform”. This new platform was rolled out in January 2023 to audit and monitor the currency auctions. This was the start of serious de-dollarization. But who initiated it? Was it the US or Iraq. It was the U.S. and so Iraq has to follow the lead and cooperate this effort and move at the pace suggested by the US Treasury, who was there to help in the process.
Of course, this process of obtaining dollars is now being moved away from the CBI requesting them from the US Treasury to the private banks requesting dollars through inter-banking practices, as other non-sanctioned countries traditionally already operate under. This is all so very good!
I also need to point out, as told to us in one of the recent articles in today’s news, is that the government did not spend the budget in 2023 so that it would not be exploited in the local elections by parties and candidates at the time. In 2024 Iraq is calling on the government to start spending the budget more than it was spending in 2023 in order to be a facilitating factor for the market and exchange rate to stabilize.
So, there are many forces working against the parallel black market and will only help to stabilize the dinar official rate yet more. These forces will prevent not only large fluctuations of the dinar against the official CBI rate but also to bring the rate to a stable point to the official CBI rate. I will recap these points of these many factors they are now using:
1.Emphasising the dinar as the “National Currency” and will be the only currency used in country. There will be only one currency in Iraq and it is the Iraqi dinar;
2.Banks allowed now to import cash blocks of foreign currencies;
3.In addition to the recent measures and the consensus with the US Federal to agree to deal with the Turkey lira, UAE dirham, the euro, the Chinese yuan and the Indian ruppe, all contribute to reducing the exchange rate.”
4.We are told the dollar exchange rate will stabilize with the broader launch of the budget in 2024;
5.Banks will be forced to support the industrial initiative, which will gradually work on some industries to become their production internally to reduce the demand for the dollar as they produce in country goods for foreign trade.
6. Iraq must deal with a “basket of currencies” in addition to the dollar gradually so that it is not governed by federal instructions in addition to reducing imports.
See #3 and 6: I believe this is not “the basket” of currencies I talked about many times already to re-peg with the dinar when it goes live on FOREX. These currencies are just temporary pseudo-pegs like currencies being used to gradually get off the dollar more and more when dealing in trade with other countries. So, there is yet another major step to take to get where they need to go globally and that too is coming. Remember “first things first”!
So, we can see what is slowly happening is that Iraq is moving back to a normalcy of their financial system an international normalcy. It takes much more than just putting in place the banking reforms, the means and the mechanisms to do it as we have witnessed over the past years. But now they are actually doing it. It may be slow but remember they are still under the strong arm of the US Treasury on this matter too and are working very closely with them at their pace. In many ways this is good as we want the US to support this process when it comes time to give the “green light”. This is why so many visits by the US Treasury to Iraq, Get it?
Parliament is awaiting the 2024 budget schedules… preparing for major changes in numbers
The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed today, Friday, that the 2024 budget schedules have not yet reached Parliament, but the total revenues and expenditures must be reconsidered. Committee member, Mustafa Al-Karawi, said, “The Prime Minister has not sent any letter regarding the 2024 budget yet, but in general it is assumed that the issue of revenues and total expenditures and the percentage of the deficit achieved in the new budget will be reconsidered, based on expectations of oil prices and quantities exported according to the OPEC decision.” , indicating that “if changes occur to these three numbers, there will be a major change to the rest of the budget schedules,” according to the Iraqi News Agency.
Al-Karaawi explained that “the volume of expenditures distributed across the spending lines, and according to the available amounts and expected revenues, there will be a redistribution of the budget schedules, and as a result there will be a major change in the schedules,” noting that “what the political forces aspire to are the budget items. Especially in the Kurdistan region, with regard to actual expenses and others.”
He stressed that “the committee is determined that there be social justice between the governorates, and that everyone is obligated to pay the actual expenses,” noting that “these points are the sum of the differences that we will witness in the budget during the coming period.”
He added, “We hope to send its data for the 2024 budget after the legislative recess, so that it can be amended quickly.”
Al-Karaawi confirmed, “There is no increase in fuel prices. Rather, it is regulating the process of processing fuel by converting it to electronic form and using payment cards, but there is not yet any official decision regarding fuel prices.”
Article: "A financial expert points out the reasons for the continuous decline in the dollar exchange rate" Quote: "On Monday, financial expert Nabil Al-Ali attributed the continued decline in the exchange rate of the US dollar towards the Iraqi dinar to...the change in the attitudes of merchants and public opinion through their conviction of the strength and status of the dinar...The dollar exchange rates against the Iraqi dinar will continue to decline, thus touching the official rate specified by the Central Bank."
Article: "The Iraqi Dinar Overthrows The Dollar And Wins The Struggle To Control The Regular Market” Quote “The US Treasury continues its cooperation with the Central Bank of Iraq,as many Iraqi banks have now formed relationships with international banks for the first time.”
Article: " CBI Governor: Int'l welcome to the Iraqi banking sector’s commitment to compliance rules" Quote: "For the first time, Iraq is witnessing the reorganization of the external transfer process through correspondent banks, instead of the Central Bank or the Federal Bank being the executive interface for this process.”
Article: "CBI Governor: Int'l welcome to the Iraqi banking sector’s commitment to compliance rules" Quote: "For the first time, Iraq is witnessing the reorganization of the external transfer process through correspondent banks, instead of the Central Bank or the Federal Bank being the executive interface for this process.”
Al-Rikabi: The battle with the dollar is almost over, and we will reach the official price soon
The media advisor to the Prime Minister, Hisham Al-Rikabi, stated that the battle with the dollar is almost over, and we will reach the official price soon.
Al-Rikabi explained in the “Before Tomorrow” program, followed by “ Jarida ”, that “American officials were surprised by the rapid economic steps taken by the government, and there is no American economic blockade on Iraq, and talk about this is (inaccurate).”
He continued, “Taming and eliminating the dollar crisis began with strong steps, and many parties that practice money laundering have been neutralized, and the speculators’ market has become very limited.”