The interest rate in Iraq averaged 6.17% from 2004 until 2024 reaching an all time high of 20% in December of 2007 and a record low of 4% in March of 2016. 6.17% is a high rate, yet they still are having trouble getting the Iraqi people to put their money into the bank. Iraq does have a bank deposit protection program similar to the US's FDIC.
[Dinar Guru NOTE: For comparison the average US bank account offers .47%. You can find high yield savings accounts that offer around 5%]
The problem for Iraqi dinar investors is no US banks and few banks worldwide will allow transactions using the Iraqi dinar.
Bankers turn their noses up when people ask about Iraqi dinar and this is one of the reasons the investment is called shady.
ANALYSIS OF IRAQ NEWS
Iraq's tourism could easily increase to over 10 billion US dollars a year, comparing it with Egypt's tourism.
The problem for people in the United States is no bank in the US will do any transactions using the Iraqi dinar. Until this changes we have to find other ways to pull our profit out of Iraq. We can do this. I found one way and will discuss it in a an upcoming [post]...
There is an organized effort in Iraq to never revalue or increase the value of the currency abasing the US dollar or to provide profits for people in the west...Between the different factions within Iraq, revaluing their currency, even when they can afford it, may not be on their agenda...
Iraq is getting closer to a currency reset...Iraq's rail plans have investors worldwide watching carefully...The rail connection in Iraq from the Gulf to Europe will change Iraq's economy. This same method of increasing the GDP was recently used by Mexico when they built a connecting rail system...Mexico's exchange rate increased against the US dollar and now Americans are spending more money to live in Mexico... This is one of the major paths that can lead to a higher GDP and a higher value in the currency. The project is set to start in early 2025.
The International Monetary Fund has consistently recommended Iraq develop additional streams of income outside of the oil industry. Iraq holds a significant amount of the world's history within its borders...What is needed is security and safety for travelers. Once safety issues are address and the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers are flowing again there will be substantial annual revenue to help boost Iraq's GDP.
" Iraq's central bank revokes Iran's Bank Melli operating license" This article tells us the US is serious about not allowing Iran to have access to US dollars. It also tells us Iraq is serious about aligning with the US Treasury Department to maintain access to over one hundred billion US dollar of its money in the Federal Reserve.
Vietnam is making major financial news. Vietnam factory activity returns to growth status after the pandemic, tourist arrivals increased by 73.6% in January and retail sales are still growing for the 26th straight month. The inflation rate is at a five month low of 3.7%. Overall Vietnam has green lights on all growth patterns...Vietnam knows precisely what to do to bring the value of its currency back into the line of profit...
Clare: Ziad Al-Hashemi, a researcher in international economy (Cambridge/UK) writes to Iraq Observer: Is it time to delete ?zeros from the Iraqi dinar
February 24, 2024 Opinions / Iraq Observer
The dinar and its three zeros - is it time to symak the dinar and return to the dinar 1980 Since the beginning of 2010, the talk within the Iraqi economic community has expanded about the zeros that burdened the dinar for nearly two decades, and the need to deal with them, and to rid the dinar and free it of the burden of heavy zeros.
The goal is (return to the value of 1980 dinar), like the issues and topics discussed and interacted by Iraqis, opinions have varied and differed between an enthusiastic supporter of deleting zeros and a hesitant and rejecter, and the .state of disparity continues to this day
The process of deleting zeros is related to replacing the old currency with multiple zeros with a new currency free of zeros.
In the case of the Iraqi dinar, for example, the prevailing proposal is to replace every thousand dinars of the current currency with one dinar of the new currency, and as is traded among economists in general and cashians in particular, the deleting zeros can achieve many benefits, the most important of which is getting rid of high inflation pressures on the economy and restoring confidence in the national currency and the monetary system as a whole, facilitating accounting processes and cash exchange between citizens, and reducing the cost of managing and maintaining the monetary block by reducing its .volume under circulation
These and other benefits have encouraged some countries to adopt the process of deleting zeros from their zero-sweaden currencies, in an attempt to get rid of the burdens of inflation, or to start a new economic page, going beyond the mistakes of the past.
According to some statistics, dozens of countries have tended to delete zeros, including countries in South America, Iran, Turkey and other countries in Africa and East Asia, and in total, we have 70 deletions of currency .zeros since 1960 until today Returning to the Iraqi situation, the huge accumulations over the past decades were the main and direct reason for the loss of the dinar of its value that it enjoyed during the seventies and eighties of the last century.
Some statistics indicate that the Iraqi dinar lost by 400,000% of its value between the years 1990- 2007, meaning that the commodity that the citizen bought for 100 dinars in 1990 became buying it for 400 thousand dinars in 2007, and this is a huge huge increase, which cast a shadow on the Iraqi markets and the Iraqi commercial movement, increased the pressure on public money, and ate from the value of the citizens' cash savings, or in other words, greatly weakened the purchasing power of consumers
Accompanied by this Continuing to print the currency and increasing the cash mass in circulation, which until 1980 did not exceed 25 billion dinars, to rise in the 1990s to 40 billion, then the huge jump came in 2003 to reach the cash mass to 6 trillion dinars and exceed 27 trillion dinars in 2010 until we reached the level of more than 100 trillion dinars, and the number is able to increase, and the 25 dinars note was the largest banknote in 1990
But today we have the categories of .25,000 and 50,000 dinars Because of the achievement of a kind of security and economic stability in Iraq supported by a strong financial position due to the large oil revenues that generated huge reserves of hard currency, a group of financial and economic experts believe that it is time to start to scalate the dinar and delete its three zeros, where the process (in their opinion) will achieve a lot of positives that the Iraqi economy needs, the first of which is the return of the dinar as a store of value, restore confidence in the monetary system, reduce the demand for hard currency and get rid of the phenomenon of dollarization that has caused the economy and squandered huge financial wealth.
With the process of of flining the dinar, the issued cash mass can be reduced from 100 trillion to 100 billion and this is a number that can be managed more Efficient and .less expensive Despite the validity and opponence of this opinion in many aspects, there are some issues that must be taken into account before making such a decision.
The process of deleting zeros will not provide a magic solution alone through which the Iraqi monetary system can get rid of inflation and cover behind a young currency without zeros. Experience has shown that many countries have not benefited sufficiently from the process of deleting zeros, as the value of currencies have deteriorated in some cases, and the new currencies have returned to accumulate zeros again, in an undoubted confirmation that the fight against inflation requires other more effective solutions that are applied in parallel with the process of deleting zeros
And from those experiences, the experience of Brazil Which has been deleting zeros seven times since 1930 and with a total of 18 zeros, and this country succeeded only in the attempt in 1993, when the process of deleting zeros was associated with an economic reform process targeting the roots and .causes of inflation
With a quick look, we find that the Iraqi economy still suffers from serious structural and structural problems, including the issue of high rent, the fragility of the non-oil sectors and the deterioration of their domestic product, and the lack of sufficient discipline in monetary and financial policies and the ambiguous relationship between the two policies, not to mention the obsolescence of administrative and banking systems and the penetration of corruption all joints and sectors of the economy, and other negatives, and until the process of deleting zeros is achieved,
it is important to precede the implementation of an effective economic reform program that re-engineers and structures economic sectors, accompanied by a review and evaluation of both monetary and financial policies and adjusting the relationship between them, and developing appropriate plans to manage the transitional smoothly from an old currency burdened with zeros.
To a nascent currency that needs care and good management, so that the country can actually achieve the maximum benefit from the process of .deleting zeros and sinarg In addition, carefully choosing the appropriate timing for the implementation of the process of deleting zeros is one of the most important success factors that must not be absent from the monetary decision-maker.
The wrong timing in implementation may negatively affect the behavior of consumers, confusing the markets (including financial markets), hitting the reputation of the new dinar, returning to the state of dollarization, fleeing capital, providing new ways and paths for money laundering operations, supporting irregular and illegal operations.
This may lead to further rises in prices and inflation rates, and this means complete failure of the dinar flighting process. This process is considered a double-edged weapon that requires a high level of carefulness, planning and good execution, away from speed In the implementation to search for rapid economic or political gains
So I say in conclusion, that Iraq still needs more time, effort and work to study this process in a deep and extensive manner and prepare the necessary conditions and tools that the country needs to reach the stage of the ability to implement the process of faltering the dinar effectively and successfully, and then reap its fruits and benefit from it according to the plans set, then we can say with reassuringly that Iraq has become a strong dinar that maintains its value, comparable to other strong currencies around the world, and may be even stronger .than the 1980 dinar.
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Henig:The goal is (return to the value of 1980 dinar), like the issues and topics discussed and interacted by Iraqis, opinions have varied and differed between an enthusiastic supporter of deleting zeros and a hesitant and rejecter, and the .state of disparity continues to this day The process of deleting zeros is related to replacing the old currency with multiple zeros with a new currency free of zeros.
In the case of the Iraqi dinar, for example, the prevailing proposal is to replace every thousand dinars of the current currency with one dinar of the new currency, and as is traded among economists in general and cashians in particular, the deleting zeros can achieve many benefits, the most important of which is getting rid of high inflation pressures on the economy and restoring confidence in the national currency and the monetary system as a whole, facilitating accounting processes and cash exchange between citizens, and reducing the cost of managing and maintaining the monetary block by reducing its .volume under circulation
Henig: THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!!!! Outstanding find, Miss Clare!!! Well done!!!
DallasDude: And furthermore the Iraqi Dinar in 1980, 1,980 dinars = $1.51 USD..IMO Good stuff Claire..
FIREFLY: The entire city is uncomfortable and upset knowing the HCL is still not dealt with, knowing this is a key for us citizens. Today they [parliament] all walked out. They can't agree on the bill and they said we don't know when or if ever we will pass it. FRANK: That's a bunch of bull Ka-Ka. What do you mean you don't know when you're going to pass it. No one needs you to pass it!
FIREFLY: TV says the Baghdad dollar will see a huge drop beginning of week, however the exchange rate is stable? We don't know what it means.
FRANK: What is a Baghdad dollar? It's the United States Dollar in Baghdad....That's the drop of the US dollar in the parallel market...Which means they'll try to get to 1 to 1...I'm not telling next we're going to have our blessing. I'm telling that next week they're going to do what they're saying.
FIREFLY:Sudani talked about going to Washington DC to meet and get all oil reserves and assets from oil held in U.S. Treasury. FRANK: Dang! Like they don't have enough money! Wow!
FIREFLY: Al Suandi is on TV news Channel One saying the best and the only way to improve the electronic payment system is the CBI should remove the three zeros, print the new currency and give us a one month period to exchange our currency. This will show the power of the dinar over the dollar ...He also said this will get rid of citizen holding cash and any smugglers and money laundering.
FRANK: ...That's what they're about to introduce to you, your new exchange rate to match your lower notes...the lower notes will only work with a new exchange rate. I can't believe they keep saying this to you constantly every day...You are within arms reach ...One month...I believe they'll give you longer than that. Outside with us it should also be a longer time to exchange...
FIREFLY: A guy comes on TV and he talks to us about how the end of the Untied Nations mission official has removed all sanctions from Iraq...
FIREFLY: So far we are not seeing the lower notes but they talk to us about them every day.They just talk to us about them and why we'll need them.
FRANK: They are talking to you about the lower notes and coins because they are about to show them to you next week or the week after. I believe your bank friend will show you something in the sense of pictures...Take as many pictures as you can.
FIREFLY: A representative from the CBI is talking to us in great detail about the new coins they will be giving us with the new currency notes...He said to us once again, the process to delete the zeros is in the process.
It made us smile. He said this process is occurring because the lower notes will not be needed if the rate wasn't increasing.He said if the CBI didn't come out with these lower notes the monetary reforms would be a disaster. He said that's why we need a change in our rate...
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein announced on Sunday the end of the second round of Baghdad and Washington negotiations on the presence of international coalition forces in Iraq.
Hussein said, in a press statement, that “negotiations are continuing and the second round is over and we hope to have other rounds,” without disclosing the results of the past two rounds.
There is also likely to be a round of discussions in Washington during Prime Minister Mohammad Shia’ al-Sudani’s visit to the United States, Hussein said.
On January 25, the State Department announced the success of the negotiations between the Iraqi and US governments that began in August 2023, to formulate a timetable that determines the duration of the presence of international coalition advisers in Iraq and end the military mission of the coalition against ISIS.
👆I'm aware that a lot of rumors will begin to surface on this March the 2nd date, I can hear the keystrokes of our gurus already typing out new stories surrounding this date from around the world.
Assumptions are made, but no one knows for sure until we get to that date exactly what they're going to do say. No one person can predict the future, the RV date will be revealed through new Market support patterns. Bretton Woods will make an announcement when everything has moved into new values.
A lot of people have been brainwashed into the constant beating into their heads of looking at the markets through the eyes of a date and rate. It doesn't happen that way.
Believe me, the revaluation process will be a part of that meeting. Meetings like these are always about creating new values that can benefit the Global Economy.
Just sit tight, and enjoy the process. Europe still needs to bring out their MICA regulations for stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. My understanding is that these are mandated to be done by the end of May - just before their elections.
If you have your money in iso digital tokens, you are sitting in a good place. For those who have their investments only in paper money, you are going to have to wait until those tokenized assets begin to show reasons to change your currencies' values.