I wanted to bring this video to you today so you can hear the news of what is taking place in Iraq and to know it is NOT all just about the RV. This is not my words but words of researched news journalist. This process of ditching the US dollar has a much wider, a more concerning reason for Iraq. But having said this, ditching the dollar is, in my opinion, as it is Iraq’s, the first real step to solidify the inevitable end to corruption with their currency and the revaluation. This will lead to what outside Iraq investors in the three zero dinar notes want to hear, yes it will lead to getting back on the foreign currency exchanges.
But what about BRICS? Rumors have talked about Iraq wanting to join BRICS. Can they? Will they be allowed to full accession to BRICS?
Before we answer these pivotal questions, let’s first take a look at what BRICS is so we all are on the same page and understand this organization first. Then we can answer the question – Is this Iraqi membership coming in the near future?
Next, we read in the article titled“BOTTLENECK RISKS: IRAQ’S RELIANCE ON A LIMITED NUMBER OF CORRESPONDENT BANKS”. The Iraqi economic and financial system is facing a major transformation with the cessation of the “window” and “platform” and the shift to direct bank transfers, which may reveal gaps in the readiness of financial institutions for this change. I call this one of those WOW!
statements. If have been following this currency auction saga and all its corruption over the last decades, you can see this is going to be huge, huge and be exciting but also very scary too. Like I said the longer you do things one way, even if its supposed to be temporary (as the currency auctions were supposed to be) the harder it is to revert back to a normal way of doing business. You also have the “keepers” of the goose who lays the golden eggs and they are not going to let go without a fight. So, we see the negative articles. We must be smart enough to see through them ad ignore them.
The above article also talks about the Central Bank, and how, it was not able to rehabilitate and develop Iraqi banks and prepare them for the platform’s shutdown phase in time, and it will be forced to rely on only 4-5 banks initially that have the ability to pass direct transfers through their correspondent banks, which will create a large (financial bottleneck), so they predict. But again this is only their “opinion”.
The author also pointed out and I quote – “that these fundamental changes coming to the Iraqi monetary and financial system, and the challenges and risks they entail, have not yet motivated either the government or the Central Bank to move and adopt a special and urgent action plan related to dealing with the variables and data of this critical transitional period, which the Iraqi economy has never experienced before!”
Al-Saadi told Baghdad Today, “Iraq has not joined the BRICS group yet for several reasons related to the current economic and political situation, in addition to the fact that Iraq does not meet the conditions for joining, the most prominent of which is that it be among the major economies in the region. However, Iraq’s economy is primarily rentier and depends solely on oil exports as a primary source of income, which makes its economy less diversified compared to the group’s founding countries such as China and India.”
He added: “The second important question is that Iraq should have absolute financial sovereignty over its economy, and not as it is now, where it is subject to the rules and conditions of the US Federal Reserve in granting financial shares .”
(Mnt Goat: This last statement is VERY important and shows us once again who is holding up Iraq and the RV)
“Iraq’s trade relations with some BRICS members, such as Brazil and South Africa, are not strong enough to support it in this direction. In addition, Iraqi foreign policy is still balanced between competing global powers, including the United States, which is cautiously looking at BRICS expansion and its geopolitical influence,” he said, noting that “
in the future, these dynamics may change, especially if economic diversification is enhanced, internal political stability is achieved, and absolute financial sovereignty is achieved.”
He noted that “if Iraq joins, it may benefit from expanding opportunities for economic cooperation with countries such as China and Russia, including investments in infrastructure and non-oil sectors, which may help reduce dependence on oil and diversify sources of income .”
The professor of international economics concluded his statement by pointing out that “there are some potential harms to Iraq joining BRICS and entering a bloc that challenges Western hegemony, especially the United States, which may lead to diplomatic or economic tensions with the West,
which negatively affects Iraq’s current trade and political relations with Western countries. Also, dealing with some of the founding countries of BRICS, such as Russia, which faces international sanctions, may put Iraq in sensitive positions on the international scene.” BRICS is a group of nine countries: Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, South Africa, India, Brazil, the UAE, Iran and Egypt.
The number of members of the bloc, which focuses on economics before politics, has increased and seeks to break Western “hegemony” over the international system, but many factors make this a long and thorny path, according to experts.
Russia, the group’s founding state and embroiled in a brutal war with Ukraine, is hosting more than 20 leaders at the annual summit, setting an ambitious agenda, most notably “dedollarization” and alternative financial mechanisms.
On the eve to kick-off the month of November, we find Iraq paying more attention now in the news media to rebuilding the economy and how they plan to do it. How will they pay for it? Yes, the banking reforms had to come first to support it. There are still more to come. But how does this effect the RV we are waiting for? In today’s Newsletter the CBI gives us many aspects as to how they plan to do it in the many articles today by them.
Our first article of interest, to back up the effort towards rebuilding the economy, is stated clearly in a short article titled: “The private sector has begun a new phase”. Here we read that Dr. Murtadha Al-Khafaji, a member of the Iraqi Businessmen Union, stated that the Iraqi private sector has begun a new phase that is different from the previous one, and it has become possible to rely on its capabilities to implement projects.
Yes, the growth of the economy is dependent on rebuilding the infrastructure, these projects that have been delayed for so long. Why were they delayed? The funding was surely there for many of them. There is one word from the past that held back Iraq and the word is “corruption”. Now the 2025 budget is providing funds to complete many of these projects and expand the private sector. Al-Khafaji said: “The projects implemented by the Iraqi private sector indicate the potential of local effort, which has become comparable to global effort, as local capabilities have been developed during the last decade. He added that Iraqi human resources have gained a lot of experience, through interaction with global expertise,
which has worked in more than one economic aspect. He pointed out that national companies must occupy the appropriate place within the local labor market.”
So, we can see how one thing builds and allows something else to occur. Is that not how a nation is built?
