President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid received, on Sunday, at the Peace Palace in Baghdad, the Ambassador of the United States of America to Iraq, Elena Romansky, stressing “the keenness to continue building close relations that serve mutual interests, respect national sovereignty, and enhance joint cooperation in various fields.”
During the meeting, Rashid referred to a presidential statement, a copy of which was received by {Euphrates News}, “Iraq’s determination to continue the approach of reform, eliminate cases of corruption, and build distinguished partnerships that contribute to achieving comprehensive development and economic growth,” stressing “the importance of benefiting from experiences and experiences and employing them to gain skills and improve the reality of the economic, commercial, agricultural, environmental and energy sectors.” He also pointed out that “the Presidency of the Republic adopted the release of detainees whose sentences have expired and the formation of a committee that, in addition to the Presidency of the Republic, included the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministries of Justice and Interior and the National Security Advisers to follow up the files of the convicts and the expiration dates of their sentences, to ensure their release on time.”
Rashid stressed “the importance of finding solutions to the outstanding issues between the federal government and the Kurdistan region in accordance with the Constitution, law and political understandings, indicating the desire of the two sides to continue the dialogue to resolve the issue of the budget and pay the dues of the employees of the Kurdistan region like their peers of employees.” For her part, the US ambassador affirmed her country’s desire to develop relations between the two countries and strengthen cooperation to serve the two friendly peoples. The situation at the regional and international levels was also reviewed, and the support for the opportunities for peace, security and stability in the region was emphasized.
FIREFLY: TV is say when Sudani goes to Washington. OMG that's a long time off. Means nothing changing until after that probably, if it does this year.
FRANK: I don't care if it happens on the 15th of April. I don't care if it happens tomorrow. I just know it's happening with all that we're seeing. The proof is there. There's no doubt about it.
FIREFLY: Tv talked about
parliament finance has been meeting...with the CBI officials talking about mechanisms to pay the salaries and all the project we have. This is a good sign. They are meeting right before the budget goes to parliament next week.
FRANK: Firefly knows if it does go to parliament and they vote, it will expose an exchange rate. Certainly not a program rate.
FIREFLY: Talked to bank friend. He told me it seems to be the quiet time but soon news on the amending budget will appear...Nothing will get done, so it's going to be soon. The dropping of the zeros is off the exchange rate...We were told on TV that during next week the 2024 amended budget will arrive at parliament for their vote.
FRANK: Stay very close to your friend because at any moment IMO I believe he'll be able to give you what you're looking for, what they promised you.
The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, confirmed that the House of Representatives’ approval of the financial budget schedules for the year 2024 does not hinder their implementation.
Saleh told {Al-Furat News} agency, “The federal tripartite general budget issued pursuant to Law No. 13 of 2023 differs from the annual budgets that are subject to Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019, amended when the approval of its legislation was delayed, as the Federal Financial Management Law stipulates in one of its paragraphs, that In the event of a delay in approving the general budget law for the new fiscal year, disbursement will be made at a rate of 1/12 of the actual ongoing or current expenditures for the previous year.”
He stated, “The federal tripartite general budget issued pursuant to Law No. 13 of 2023 differs from the annual budgets that are subject to Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019 amended when the approval of its legislation is delayed, as the Federal Financial Management Law stipulates in one of its paragraphs that in the event of a delay in approving the budget law General expenditure for the new fiscal year shall be made at a rate of 1/12 of the actual ongoing or ongoing expenses for the previous year. Saleh explained, “Approving the general budget law for three years does not provide legal conditioning for the implementation of the effective administration law as long as the general budget has been enacted according to the law for three years.
Therefore, I do not see that the financial tables prepared for approval by the House of Representatives constitute an obstacle to the progress of implementing the plan.” Finance for the year 2024, in its operational and investment parts, and stopping the wheel of public finance, especially its investment part linked to development and economic prosperity, awaiting the approval of the amended budget schedules approved by the executive authority until it is approved by the House of Representatives, as if the matter requires new legislation that delays the purpose of adopting the three-year budget and the investment in time it entails. “.
At the same time, he noted that “the tripartite budget experiment is a financial experiment taking place for the first time in our country. If its goal was and still is to stabilize the adoption and implementation of national development projects without delay related to the annual budget and its annual legislation, then the disruption of its implementation means a return to the annual budget square.” Here, the fundamental difference must be made clear between implementing the budget that is enacted on an annual basis and the budget that is enacted on the basis of an average time frame, such as the tripartite general budget issued by Law 13 of 2023.”
Mon. 25 March MarkZ:There is some fun stuff coming from sources over the weekend. Bond contacts really lit up overnight/and over the weekend. One of my contacts that “lit up” after going quiet said they very much expect things bymid-week this week.
They believe they will actually be walking away from the table with spendable money. People who have not been excited for quite awhile are now excited. I am hearing from my banking side. Historic Bonds are getting positive chatter again. It makes me feel it will all be going…and not just the Iraqi Dinar. If it was just Iraq- it would not affect the Historic Bonds. Because the bond folks are excited it looks like it is a bigger event. We in Tier 4b are supposed to go immediately following bonds. We have always been told that Historic Bonds go first with 1%, then Sovereigns, Indian Nations, large church groups and then Bond Folks get their remaining 9% fiat, then BAM we all start making our appointments. At the same time SKR folks have gotten their payouts. I understand that the whole process should only be a week long and that the very first things we should see is Bond Folks getting dollars.
Shafaq News / At a time when the price of the dollar is still fluctuating between rise and fall, and the market is forced to live in a situation in a kind of confusion, because the hard currency is an important tool in Iraqi trade, as it is a trade that depends on import in most of the products in the local market, a researcher whose master’s thesis, at the Faculty of Management and Economics at the University of Tikrit, on Monday, put some possible solutions to hold and control the dollar price, because his message came about the role of the Central Bank and the currency sale window and their role in stabilizing the dinar against the dollar and the importance of maintaining the reserve for foreign currency.
Researcher Ahmed Abdullah Akil, Shafaq News Agency, said that “the study aims to know and measure the impact of some central bank tools in achieving the stability of the Iraqi dinar exchange rate against the US dollar during the period (2004-2022) in order to know the places of imbalances and negatives that hinder the stability of the value of the local currency according to the nature of Iraq’s economy, as the goal of maintaining the value of the local currency was the main goal of maintaining the price level related mainly related to the level of the local dinar exchange against the US dollar.”
He added that “the study variables were analyzed and measured according to the (Eviews 13) program, and it was found that there is a moral positive relationship between some central bank instruments as independent variables and the official and parallel exchange rate as subordinate variables in the short term with some negative and positive correlations of some variables in the long term, as it was noted that some instruments were ineffective in affecting the currency exchange rate such as the legal reserve, the re-discount price and open market operations, but the impact of some of them were limited to inflation.”
He pointed out that “while the impact of the interest rate and the window was positive on the value of the local currency as a result of its reduction in the nominal exchange rate, and this indicates the ability of the Central Bank to affect the stability of the exchange rate of the local currency in front of the foreign currency, especially through the window of selling the currency throughout the study period, except for some last years of the study period, as the nominal exchange rate re-rise, as well as the situation in the parallel market by a decision of the monetary authority represented by the Central Bank, for the purpose of facing public expenditures and facing the repercussions of the global health crisis related to the Corona epidemic and the accompanying decrease in oil prices, which is the main source of the US dollar, due to the rentier nature For the Iraqi economy.”
He continued: “It was also noted that the gap between the official exchange rate and its equivalent in the parallel market was increased due to the increased demand for the foreign currency. The study presented a number of recommendations, the most important of which was continuing to work the window without excessive use of foreign reserves and diversifying the sources of access to foreign currency by advancing development and activating the real sector, industry and agriculture, in order to achieve a reduction in imports, which reduces the depletion of currency, in addition to tightening regulatory measures to prevent the smuggling of foreign currency and the works that affect the supply of it, which contributes to the stability of the exchange rate of the local currency.”
He stressed that “continuing to work with the window of selling the currency without redesting foreign reserves, and diversifying the sources of obtaining foreign currency so that the exchange rate does not remain hostage to oil prices as it is almost the only source of foreign currency access.”
He pointed out that “pushing the wheel of development in Iraq, activating the real sector, activating industry and agriculture to reduce imports to relieve pressure on foreign reserves of the dollar, keep the Central Bank away from political pressures and give it the necessary powers to deal with the fluctuations of the economic situation, including fluctuations in exchange rates, and tighten regulatory measures to prevent the smuggling of foreign currency abroad so as not to affect the supply of foreign currency, and therefore the value of the local currency.”
