Article quote: "Iraq is better off now ever than it's in its financial history."
Even at a program rate, even at where we've been and what we've seen the central bank has probably done the job that they said they were going to do... Bottom line is Iraq has reserves...gold..more natural resources found, probably proven or probably...That is huge.
The Iraqi Central Bank is not going to come out and say, 'by the way you guys, tomorrow we're going to come out and drop the three zeros and guess what it's going to be at X [rate].' They're not going to do that. Nor is the...Finance Minister going to say, 'Hey by the way, I'm going to order the Central Bank of Iraq to what they got to to to change the value of the currency.' Nor is the US Treasury, US Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF or Bank of International Settlements...
Mawazine News – Baghdad The Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Al-Alaq, confirmed today, Tuesday, that the electronic payment file has a high government priority, and while noting that inflation has decreased significantly compared to the beginning of 2023, he announced the imminent launch of a special mechanism to sell the dollar that guarantees its access to the real traveler only.
electronic defense
Al-Alaq said in an interview followed by Mawazine News that “the Central Bank and the government give great priority to the subject of electronic payment because of its important economic repercussions and raising the level of transactions away from the excessive use of cash,” noting that “the Iraqi economy is a cash economy with excellence and the electronic payment process aims to reduce the degree of cash economy significantly.”
He added, “The Prime Minister is very supportive of the transfer process for electronic payment and holds successive and continuous meetings in order to support the procedures related to this subject, and we have made an important way in arranging electronic payment at the level of levection and payment in state institutions, in addition to the fact that the Council of Ministers approved a number of packages and important decisions that facilitate this process and not charging the citizen’s necessary commissions.”
He pointed out that “the Central Bank has a broad strategy in the file of electronic payment, developed infrastructure and covering any type of electronic payment, whether by cards, via mobile phone or other means,” noting that “the Central Bank is also working on the strategy of financial inclusion and increasing users of financial services.”
He added that “there are direct decisions issued towards supporting the use of electronic payment, including obliging government agencies to pay and receive through cards, as well as linking the process of renewing licenses in shops and adopting them in the sale and buying processes with the incentives granted, especially the government’s decision to bear them 50 percent, which will make them marginal.”
At the same time, Al-Alaq stressed that “the central bank is working to finalize the establishment of Riyada Bank, which will focus on supporting small projects relying on the use of financial services away from cash dealing.”
Decline in inflation
He stated that “the indicator of the success of monetary policy in any country is to control the general level of prices and reduce inflation,” explaining that “inflation has now decreased significantly compared to the beginning of 2023, which demonstrates, as the US Treasury assistant mentioned a few days ago, that the low level of inflation indicates foreign trade covered by the official price and that external financing operations are conducted smoothly, and all importers and traders can obtain and control the dollar at the official rate.”
Turnout on the official platform
He pointed out that “the Central Bank’s following the rules and assets of external transfer according to the conditions and requirements set and its insistence on implementing them, which prompted many hesitant traders to enter the foreign currency sale platform, especially since its use is easy and safe and allows them to dollar at the official price.”
Al-Alaq pointed out that “the Central Bank confirms the possibility of meeting all requests for the dollar, whether personal or commercial or any kind of type, as long as it is true and legitimate, and these are strongly supported by the size of foreign reserves held by the Central Bank.”
He pointed out that “the central bank does not have a problem in offering or selling the dollar, nor does it put restrictions on the sale operations at all and did not specify for the bank how much it can buy a dollar and did not specify a trader, importer or user of the dollar a higher or lower limit or other, and this gave the impression that there is no problem in responding to demand for the dollar and that speculation is useless because the rules of this speculation are not available and incorrect.”
He added that “some groups are still trying to stay away from the platform for various reasons, either to evade tax, customs or others, or for the existence of illegal trade, as the drug dealer cannot transfer through the Central Bank or if it is corruption funds, it cannot be transferred through the Central Bank.”
Fulfill all dollar purchase orders
He pointed out that “the central bank is in a comfortable position to respond to requests to buy the dollar and we have sufficient reserves, on the other hand, there are some countries that do not have enough reserves to respond to the demand, and therefore they have a large difference in price between parallel and official.”
On the provision of dollar for travelers, Al-Alaq said that “after the experience we had in the way of selling the dollar to the traveler and citizens, we found a lot of observations, including that the real traveler is difficult for him to get the dollar, so we had a meeting in this regard, and we will finish a new mechanism after developing its programs related to this subject, under which only the real traveler will get the dollar.”
“One of the things that helped to calm and reassure the market is the stability of the exchange rate and the central bank’s provision of payment options after currencies such as euros, dirhams, Turkish lira and Indian rupees as they are expanding,” he said.
If I was the CBI I would tell all my children that I'm going to give them pictures of the new small category notes that are about to come out...If I was the CBI I would not give them the exchange rate and the new currency together...the last thing we need is mass confusion...If I was the CBI...
Last Tuesday and Friday I would have told all my children, all my banks that within the next week or so to be prepared...If I was the CBI I would say the next phase in the monetary reform is to make sure everybody outside of Iraq understands that we are about to retrieve our 3-zero notes...Iraqi citizens are already being told to do this.
[Georgia Truist Bank story follow up from last week]
BANK VISITOR: The lady I was supposed to be speaking with was out with the flu... [A new financial advisor] calls me and honestly it was a little confusing because the guy...acts like he didn't know anything. In fact...he said...I'm pretty sure this is a hoax.
FRANK: First recording [story]...the lady says we know, we're preparing. Here is at the same bank with another officer that says [the opposite]...The same bank, you had people that know what's going on and then you have another person that doesn't know what's going on. One gives positive information and one gives negative information. They're both from the same source. That's the problem with a speculative investment. The evidence is out. It's not a secret...
Central Bank Governor Ali Al-Alaq announced, on Tuesday, a new mechanism for the traveler to get the dollar.
Al-Alak said in a press statement that: “Soon we will launch a mechanism to ensure that the real traveler gets only the dollar,” announcing that “inflation has decreased significantly compared to the beginning of 2023.”
He added, “External financing operations are conducted smoothly and all importers and traders can get the dollar at the official price,” but “the central bank confirms that all demands for the dollar can be met.”
“The central bank has no problem offering or selling dollars; but some categories are trying to stay away from the platform of selling foreign currency to avoid tax, customs or having illegal trade,” Al-Alaq continued.
“The bank is in a comfortable position to respond to requests to buy dollars and we have sufficient reserves,” he said.
[via PDK] In Iraq we are being told “Denomination specimen sheets” are being shown in banks in Iraq. This is a sheet showing the new money and pictures of all the features on the new lower denominations...If Iraqi banks are indeed doing this…we are awfully close.
[via PDK] ...coming out of Iraq: “Contract signed for new residential city near Baghdad”Will include more than 100,000 units. They are busy working on housing for their people. This is a large scale project worth big bucks…. How are they going to pay for it???
There is no negative news and groups still have high expectations. A lot of NDA’s but no word on timing as of yet.
..rumors...from every corner of the “blogisphere” …they are saying the CBI has released rates to the government of Iraq and Iraq has released those to all the central banks in the world including the US…and that everything is locked and loaded. That is the chatter.