With its rise locally... Iraq's gold reserves were revealed
3/10/2024
The economic advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, revealed the size of the Iraqi gold reserve at the Central Bank of Iraq.
Saleh told {Al-Furat News} agency, “There should be a distinction between fundamentally imported commercial gold and monetary gold, which is an integral part of the country’s foreign reserves, as monetary gold falls within the diversification of the monetary authority’s investment portfolio, and the numbers indicate that it exceeds 132 tons of monetary gold and within the safe range of reserves.”foreign to the country. He added, "As for commercial gold, it is regulated by a law and instructions that are subject to the controls of commercial systems and the gold marking law, which the Central Agency for Standardization and Quality Control undertakes to mark and protect gold assets supplied to the country as national wealth." Local markets in Baghdad are witnessing an increase in gold prices, as the selling price of a gram (the mithqal) reached 465 thousand dinars. An economist, Salah Nouri, revealed the reasons for the rise in gold prices. Nouri told Al-Furat News, “What is happening at the present time in terms of the increase in gold jewelry is the result of an increase in demand for it. When the demand for it increases, its price increases, and so far this is economically logical.” Nouri added, "But more importantly, why has the demand for gold jewelry increased at the present time? I think that the citizen tends to save in it instead of the dollar, and this is a weak reason. It is more likely that traders speculating in the dollar are turning to gold instead of the dollar for reasons of speculation or smuggling, because Individual citizens’ need for gold jewelry is limited to special occasions.” Meanwhile, an informed source told {Al-Furat News} that one of the reasons for the rise in gold prices was due to “citizens’ weak confidence in banks,” so they withdrew the amounts deposited in banks and turned to gold.”
The Ministry of Finance announced, on Monday, the launch of funding for the Kurdistan Region’s salaries for the month of February.
A statement from the ministry, received by “Al-Ma’louma”, stated, “Based on the directives of the Prime Minister and the approval of the Minister of Finance, Taif Sami, and based on what was stated in the letter of the Federal Court, funds for the salaries of Kurdistan Region’s civilian employees and the entitlements of the disabled were launched in the directorates of the Social Protection Network, Welfare and Social Development.” And the salaries of civilian and military retirees, the entitlements of the affairs of the martyrs and the Anfal, contracts, and the entitlements of the region’s departments, as part of the financial allocations for the month of February of 2024.”
T he Ministry indicated that it had “informed the Federal Court in the content of the aforementioned books of the launch of funding salaries for the month of February for the Kurdistan Region, because the localization mechanism requires a period of time for this month only. As for the launch of salaries for the month of March, it will take place after the completion of the salary localization requirements by the region.” “.
The Ministry reaffirmed that the Kurdistan Regional Government bears legal responsibility for the validity and accuracy of the information and data provided before the regulatory and legal authorities and bodies. Ended 25 n
FRANK26: "THE MONETARY REFORM BROUGHT IN CONTRACTS... THE CONTRACTS BRING IN CONSTRUCTION BONDS... AND NASDAQ WANTS A PIECE OF THE ECONOMIC BOOM OF IRAQ, AT A PROGRAM RATE?"...............F26
The Iraqi market decides to launch trading on construction bonds
3/10/2024
Baghdad
The Iraq Stock Exchange decided to launch trading on reconstruction bonds starting from March 19.
A source in the Iraq Stock Exchange told Al-Eqtisad News that the construction bonds will be traded starting from the Tuesday session, March 19, 2024, and will be in two denominations: 500 thousand dinars, with an interest of 6%, and one million dinars, with an interest of 8%.
He added that the second issuance of reconstruction bonds will be launched for trading in the Wednesday session, March 27, 2024.
MarkZ: If Kuwait is any kind of example…they don’t mind revaluing in Ramadan...I still think we could RV before April. But, nobody knows the exact timing.
Question: So is this the month?
MarkZ: I very much think this could be our month, I do not have a magical ball…but going back to the Simply Linn bank story and remind you that bank manager said he does not know the timing but know it’s soon. And we may know before they do.
[Reference MarkZ's Simpy Linn Bank story from 3-9-2024 below]
Bank Story via Simply Linn: In a nutshell - a guy goes to a chase bank and they know nothing…. He goes to another and sits down with a personal banker who asked him what assets he had… and the guy says he has foreign currency…dinar and dong…they bring in a wealth manager… Whose eyes light up and the wealth manager shared some serious details about exchanging and the QFS...they suggested to him to exchange out of his area for anonymity and security and to avoid local tellers talking about his exchange.
I thought this was brilliant and I plan on doing that as well. Not exchanging in my town. Anonymity is a good thing to have. He also mentioned our funds go into special accounts...When the man asked if it was the QFS - the lady smiled and nodded and said it was account that no one else can see it…even tellers will not be able to see it. Very safe. ...they also said they do now know “when” but know it’s coming soon and they have been preparing for it and equipped to exchange it right in front of your eyes…and there will be armed guards while you do the exchange. This was a fantastic bank story.
FRANK26: "IF YOU REDUCE THE 3 ZEROS YOU CONTROL INFLATION, YOU REDUCE INFLATION & HELP THE MONETARY REFORM"..............F26
{Financial digitization}.. a factor to reduce inflation and absorb hoarded funds
3/10/2024
Baghdad: Haider Falih Al-Rubaie
Economic affairs specialists have identified the most prominent advantages that digital transformation can achieve in banking, placing at the forefront of these advantages the elimination of inflation through the use of small denominations,and the absorption of citizens’ hoarded cash mass, estimated at more than 95 trillion dinars, while they praised the Central Bank’s measures.In providing the appropriate ground for achieving financial digital transformation, they stressed the necessity of doubling the distribution of points of sale and working to oblige all government and private institutions to operate with electronic cards.
“The electronic transformation of the use of money in daily transactions” is of utmost importance in the government’s directions, which is making great efforts to complete this direction, especially after “the Council of Ministers had previously obligated private educational institutions, universities, private colleges, fuel processing stations, centers and shops of all kinds, In addition to restaurants, pharmacies, private medical clinics, stores, all wholesale and retail marketing outlets, and professionals, there must be a minimum amount of their cash receipts through the electronic point-of-sale (POS) system. Despite the short period of time during which it was officially decided to actually start using electronic payment methods (POS) in the country, “the World Bank believes that the infrastructure for electronic payment systems in Iraq is the best in the region,” praising during a previous meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, Director of the World Bank Office in Iraq, Richard Abdel Nour, briefed on “the Central Bank’s procedures for facilitating financial transfers to different segments in Iraq.”
The process of “banking digitization” also represents a vital factor in achieving many economic advantages in the country, according to the banking expert and member of the Board of Directors of the Iraqi Association of Islamic Banks, Dr. Abbas Fadel Rahim, who stressed that “digital transformation has become an important factor in all countries of the world, and it is “This makes it imperative for all banking institutions in Iraq to use the latest knowledge in this field to keep pace with the development of banking work that most countries of the world have reached.”
In an interview with “Al-Sabah” on the sidelines of an economic symposium on the importance of digital transformation in banking, Abbas believes that “technical developments in banking can help financial institutions and individuals achieve a number of positives, including investigation, financial inclusion, security, profitability, and liquidity,” indicating that “All banks in Iraq, private and government, operate under the umbrella and laws of the Central Bank, which has achieved important steps in the field of electronic banking, and has worked to provide the appropriate ground for achieving electronic banking transformation, as well as enabling financial institutions to work and advance in this direction to be able to It provides advanced financial business.” Abbas pointed out that the electronic transformation of banking carries a number of advantages that can be reflected positively on the economic reality in the country, especially in the field of absorbing part of the citizens’ accumulated cash mass, as the digital transformation will relieve citizens of the need to carry or hoard sums, in addition to that The transformation is able to play a vital role in reducing the high rates of inflation, due to the use of parts of the currency in electronic trading, and therefore the matter will save families sums of money that can meet other parts of their daily requirements when using electronic cards, indicating that trading in small denominations of less than 250 dinars is almost non-existent, so the use of electronic cards will use those amounts, noting at the same time that the high inflation rates are the result of many global factors that have greatly affected prices, especially the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Abbas also explained that among the advantages that the digital transformation of banking in Iraq can bring is the complete elimination of the circulation of counterfeit currencies, and the reduction of bribery operations due to reducing friction and direct dealing between citizens and employees, calling for intensifying efforts to increase electronic card sales stations ( POS). In turn, the researcher specializing in economic affairs, Durgham Muhammad Ali, explained that there are a number of steps that would make electronic payment operations successful in Iraq, noting that among those steps is “the availability of promotional and procedural elements,” indicating that “the procedural elements are primarily based on encouraging economic activities.” From shops, restaurants, malls and markets to acquire electronic payment devices (POS) and provide financial privileges in the form of granting tax allowances or other incentives to users of electronic cards. Muhammad also stressed the importance of “facilitating the process of citizens obtaining electronic payment cards, by spreading more outlets for selling and charging these cards in residential and commercial areas outside banks,” pointing out at the same time that expanding the process of using electronic cards will achieve many positive economic factors. At the forefront of which is reducing the need for annual printing of money, and increasing circulation in cash denominations of less than 250 dinars, which is reflected at the end of the month in the family budget.
The economic affairs specialist called for the necessity of “reducing the operator’s commission or paying it by the state to encourage the adoption of these technologies to increase financial inclusion in the country.”
