Clare: Monetary policy rate and reactivation of securities
Based on the monetary policy orientations to enhance access to targeted inflation rates in a manner that does not conflict with the expected economic growth rates, and is consistent with the policy of developing deposits and increasing credit ratios aimed at targeting projects, relying on following the approach based on data obtained from the banking sector .. For more click here
Clare: What does the closure of the Central Bank platform at the end of the year mean? The Association of Banks explains
The head of the Iraqi Banks Association, Ali Tariq, said that closing the electronic platform at the end of this year will not affect businessmen and the market for a long time, as they will quickly adapt and the market will return to normal, and the foreign trade process will be enhanced through correspondent accounts, adding that Iraq has 6 banks that have American correspondent banks, and 15 banks that have correspondent accounts with other countries to deal in different currencies.
Ali Tariq – Chairman of the Iraqi Banks Association, during his attendance at the MERI Conference in Erbil, told 964 Network :
The platform will stop working at the end of 2024, but that does not mean that foreign trade financing will not be enhanced, whether in dollars or other currencies, but the working mechanisms will be different. Previously, the platform compensated banks that did not have correspondent accounts with American banks for the purpose of enhancing the dollar currency. After this year, all transfers will be through correspondent accounts, so the transfer capacity for dollars will be for banks that have correspondent accounts only.
Other currencies will be for banks that have accounts in the country that has that currency. For example, for the euro, the bank must have a correspondent account in a European bank, capable of completing transfers.
Therefore, the platform’s downtime is not a cessation of work, but rather a transition to new work mechanisms.
There will be some changes in the market but they are temporary because businessmen have to adapt to the new mechanisms that are within international standards.
We have 6 banks that have accounts in US banks, which will be able to transfer in dollars, and other banks that will cover other currencies.
More than 15 banks are able to transfer, as they have accounts in the main countries from which Iraq imports, such as the Emirates, China, India, Turkey, and the Euro, and there are other currencies.
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Clare: Announcement of the auction of the Central Bank of Iraq’s remittances, numbered (B319), with a term of (14) days
We would like to inform you that the Central Bank of Iraq’s remittance auction numbered ( B319 ) has been announced with a deadline of (14) days, and the auction execution date will be on Sunday, 11/3/2024, according to what was published in the Central Securities Depository System ( CSD ) and our circular numbered 371/34 on 10/24/2024, and traditional banks can participate and submit starting from the date of publication of the announcement until the execution day.
* Note that the data used to determine the investment size (50% of private sector deposits) is according to the form dated 10/17/2024, which was submitted during the period 10/20-23/2024 via the BSRS system .
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Clare: Officially.. Parliament elects its Speaker tomorrow (document)
The Iraqi Parliament published the agenda for tomorrow’s session, Thursday, and allocated it to electing a new speaker of the parliament, to succeed Mohammed al-Halbousi, whose membership ended about a year ago.
Last Wednesday, October 23, six Sunni forces, led by the head of the Progress Party, Mohammed al-Halbousi, identified two paths to decide on the election of a new speaker of parliament, after a stalemate that lasted for 11 months.
This came in a joint statement by (Progress, National Masses, Al-Hasm, Iraqi National Project, Al-Sadara, and Al-Mubadara).
According to the statement, these forces confirmed that there are two paths and no third, the first is that all competing parties withdraw their candidates, and that all national forces present commit to supporting the candidate (Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani), who has received the support of the Sunni parliamentary and political majority.
The second option, according to the statement, is to take legal measures in the House of Representatives to nominate a new candidate from the Sunni political majority, supported by a large parliamentary majority, to preserve the right of the Sunni majority to nominate their representative for this position.
On Monday, October 28, the Coordination Framework for Shiite Forces announced an agreement to hold a session to elect a new Speaker of Parliament tomorrow, Thursday.
Clare: Qusay Saddam seized $900 million and loaded it in trucks in 2003 – Central Bank Governor
The Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Al-Alaq, said that the lessons are now sufficient for the state to move towards setting a “strict and conservative” oil price in the general budget, to avoid the pressure of declining crude prices, calling for the enactment of a law that sets the size of spending with a specific oil ceiling to ensure its coverage on the one hand, and to ensure the financing of investment projects on the other hand, noting that the three-year budget needs some new tables and amendments in line with the variables of oil prices.
Ali Al-Alaq, in an interview during the Merry Forum, followed by the 964 Network :
The role of the Central Bank cannot be reduced to the currency selling window and some marginal tasks. It is a fundamental pillar of economic and financial stability in the country. Here we must highlight a number of achievements since 2004 until today, the most important of which is maintaining the general price level, meaning the ability to manage the monetary mass in Iraq, in a way that does not lead to inflation or deflation.
After 2003, we inherited an abnormal situation devoid of any real basis for stability. Our reserves that year were $900 million, and they were seized by Qusay Saddam Hussein and loaded onto a truck. This is documented by dates and numbers. So we started from scratch. The money supply in circulation was only 4 trillion dinars. Today, the volume in circulation exceeds 100 trillion dinars, and our reserves have exceeded 100 billion dollars.
The inflation rate today is 3.8%, which is a typical rate that achieves stability and prosperity. It is an indicator of our ability to manage a monetary mass exceeding 104 trillion dinars, which does not allow pressure on purchasing power, and this is considered the most important factor in monetary and economic stability.
We have an additional mission, as we have to introduce all the tools, systems and entities that we have failed to catch up with the world with during the previous decades, and therefore there is a race against time to move towards the digital economy and advanced payment systems, as we have licensed 16 companies for electronic payment, and we are currently working on licensing digital banks, in addition to achieving advanced stages in establishing a national company for managing payments, and the Central Bank will be a partner in it to enhance it with sufficient support.
As for the reform dimension, we are currently working on two plans to reform government and private banks, which will lead to their restructuring in a way that ensures transparency, governance, and ownership structure in appropriate ways, to be consistent with international standards.
The last dimension of our work, which is not practiced by most central banks in the world, is that we work to stimulate the economy directly through lending initiatives to various sectors. The volume of loans granted to the construction and industrial sectors has reached more than 13 trillion dinars, an amount that exceeds what has been lent throughout the history of the Iraqi state. In addition, we have sought to launch initiatives to lend to small and micro-enterprises, and we have reached advanced stages of establishing a bank specialized in this initiative, and we have named it “Riyada” Bank.
We noticed that the inflation rate in 2023 was 7.5%, as the volume of issued currency jumped from 40 trillion to 100 trillion dinars, meaning that it increased in two years by an amount equivalent to its increase in the previous 18 years, and therefore we decided to withdraw part of the cash liquidity by raising the interest rate and attracting trillions of dinars from the market, although this measure is costly, but the Central Bank does not base its policies on profit and loss, but rather on the basis of performing its main function of controlling the market.
The increase in public debt is a result of the budget deficit, which is the result of increasing spending without increasing revenue. Over time, spending has become inflexible and cannot be reduced, such as the salary bill and others, and this causes a structural imbalance in the Iraqi economy.
The idea of the three-year budget is in effect in many countries of the world, and we decided to move towards it in order to ensure stable implementation, although it requires the issuance of some tables and amendments to address some variables, such as oil prices, for example.
The fiscal year will end and the oil price rate remains within our estimates in the budget, but the lessons have become sufficient for us to set a conservative oil price so that the state does not face economic pressure with the fluctuations of the global oil market. Therefore, a law must be passed that sets the share of expenditures from oil revenues with a certain ceiling, in order to ensure that it is covered on the one hand, and to ensure that the financing of investment projects that are exposed to blows with every drop in oil prices is not disrupted in order to cover the expenditure ceiling.
