Economic expert confirmed that the crisis of the dinar exchange rate against the US dollar is due to many factors.
Al-Halbousi said in a press statement: “It is well known that the rise in the dollar exchange rate and the decline in the value of the Iraqi dinar have been ongoing for more than two years, and here we confirm that the value of the dollar is stable, but the value of the Iraqi dinar fluctuates between rise and fall, and most of the time it is a fall.”
He continued, “The rise and fall of the Iraqi dinar exchange rate against the dollar from time to time is due to several reasons, including the continuation of trade with the sanctioned countries, which requires financing from outside the platform by relying on the parallel market, which is the real controller of the exchange rate. Until now, the Central Bank has no authority over it,” noting that “there are countries that live on the dollar in Iraq in the absence of the role of the Central Bank to regulate the exchange rate and stop the currency bleeding, with the penetration of these countries through private banks that dominate the currency selling window.”
He explained that “private banks also push for the exchange rate to remain high, because it benefits them. They have exploited the law of delivering dollar remittances to individuals and companies coming from abroad and delivering them to their owners in Iraqi dinars and at the official price, and then they sell the dollar at the parallel market price, which increases their profits. Therefore, they are a stumbling block to the stability of the exchange rate and stopping the bleeding of the value of the Iraqi dinar.”
He explained that “remittances and the currency sales window are monopolized by a few banks that control the exchange rate and manipulate it as they wish, which explains their achievement of imaginary profits from dollar remittances, which has begun to drain Iraqi oil revenues that finance the window, knowing that the volume of daily dollar sales is very suspicious and contradicts the volume of goods entering, which means the continued smuggling of dollars abroad, carried out by the banks controlling the window and remittances and with international collusion,” noting that “the American sanctions and the continued threat of them are another reason for the continued decline in the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar with the inability of the Central Bank to solve the problem of sanctions with the American side, as well as the inability to control the work of banks and control their fraudulent work that has caused Iraq problems with the Americans, in light of the continued smuggling of dollars in various ways practiced by banks owned by foreign countries.”
The economic expert pointed out that “the government is still counting on the Central Bank and its management to control the exchange rate, which the Central Bank has not succeeded in, but rather has failed in all its steps with the arrogance of private banks and their control over the Central Bank with external support, in addition to the influence of these banks within the Central Bank, which means that until now it has not found a solution to stop the decline in the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar, which will lead us into major problems in the coming days, especially if new American sanctions are imposed on Iraq, in addition to the rise in the geopolitical conflict in the region that casts its shadow on Iraq in a multi-faceted manner.”
burathanews.com
