The US dollar exchange rates witnessed a rise today, Saturday, in the markets of the capital Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, with the closure of the country’s main stock exchange.

The dollar prices rose with the closing of the Al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya stock exchanges to record 151,250 dinars per 100 dollars, while this morning it recorded 151,000 dinars per 100 dollars.

As for the selling prices in the field of exchange in the local markets in Baghdad, they rose, as the selling price reached 152,250 dinars per 100 dollars, while the purchase price reached 150,250 dinars per 100 dollars.

In Erbil, the dollar also recorded a rise, as the selling price reached 151,100 dinars per 100 dollars, while the purchase price reached 151,000 dinars per 100 dollars.

For The Second Week In A Row, Oil Prices Record A Decline Amid Abundant Supplies

Oil prices fell more than 1% on Friday, extending their weekly losses as analysts forecast a supply surplus next year due to weak demand despite OPEC+’s decision to delay production increases and extend deep production cuts until the end of 2026.

Brent crude futures fell 97 cents, or 1.4%, to $71.12 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.10, or 1.6%, to $67.20 a barrel.

Over the course of the week, Brent lost more than 2.5% and WTI fell 1.2%, with prices continuing to decline for the second week in a row.

Prices also fell as the number of oil and gas rigs operating in the United States rose this week, indicating higher production from the world’s largest crude oil producer.

OPEC+ on Thursday postponed the start of increasing oil production by three months until April 2025, and extended the period until all cuts are removed by a year to the end of 2026.

The alliance,-` which pumps about half of the world’s crude oil production, had planned to start reducing production cuts since October 2020, but slowing global demand, especially in China, and rising production from outside the group, in addition to other factors, prompted the alliance to postpone those plans more than once.

Brent crude traded in a narrow range of $70 to $75 a barrel last month, amid assessments of signs of weak demand in China and rising geopolitical risks in the Middle East.

Central Bank Sells More Than $1 Billion In 5 Days

The total sales of the hard currency of the dollar during the days in which the auction was opened last week exceeded one billion dollars.

The Central Bank sold during the past week and for the 5 days in which the auction was opened one billion and 441 million and 783 thousand and 807 dollars, at a daily average of 288 million and 356 million and 761 dollars, higher than the previous week, which amounted to one billion and 434 million and 982 thousand and 505 dollars.

The highest sales of the dollar were the day before yesterday, Thursday, when sales amounted to 295 million and 719 thousand and 844 dollars, while the lowest sales were on Monday, when sales amounted to 279 million and 257 thousand and 935 dollars.

 Foreign remittance sales during the past week amounted to 1 billion, 382 million, 383 thousand, and 807 dollars, an increase of 96% compared to cash sales, which amounted to 59 million, 400 thousand dollars.

Financial Supervision Calls For Building Strong And Effective Partnerships Between The Private Sector And Civil Society

The Supervision and Inspection Department of the Securities Commission called on Saturday for building strong and effective partnerships between the private sector and civil society. While indicating that volunteer work is an effective tool for enhancing community spirit and developing youth skills, it stressed the endeavor to enhance the partnership between the private sector and promising youth volunteer initiatives.

“Choosing this conference as a platform for cooperation and coordination reflects our deep awareness of the vital role that young people, especially school students, can play in building a brighter future for our beloved country,” said Amir Sabah, Director of Supervision and Inspection at the Securities Commission, during the first coordination conference of the Securities Commission and the School Student Volunteer Team, as followed by “Al-Eqtisad News.”

He added, “Volunteer work is an effective tool to enhance community spirit and develop leadership skills among young people. It is at the heart of our interests. Through this conference, we seek to enhance the partnership between the private sector and these promising volunteer initiatives, in the belief that investing in these young energies is not only a social duty, but a long-term investment in the future of Iraq.”

He added, “The role of private companies in this context is not limited to financial support only, but extends to providing expertise and guidance, and opening horizons for these young people to innovate and create,” calling on all companies and institutions to “be part of these initiatives, and contribute to achieving their noble goals.”

Sabah praised the “exceptional efforts made by the school student volunteer team,” noting that they “proved – through their dedication and creativity – that Iraqi youth are capable of giving and inspiring, whenever given the opportunity,” calling on everyone to “seize this opportunity to build strong and effective partnerships between the private sector and civil society, in a way that serves the interests of our beloved country.”

UNAMI Representative To Security Council: Iraqi Government Has Succeeded In Keeping Iraq Out Of Conflict

The UN Secretary-General’s Representative in Iraq, Mohammed Al Hassan, confirmed during his speech before the UN Security Council that “the Iraqi government succeeded in keeping Iraq away from the conflict,” praising its role in enhancing internal stability.

Al-Hassan added that “Iraq, the country of civilizations, is able to overcome crises towards a more stable and bright future,” noting the government’s success in conducting the population census, saying: “Iraq succeeded in conducting the population census, which is an important process that was followed up with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.”

He pointed to the Iraqi government’s efforts to develop the infrastructure, explaining that “Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani worked to invest in multiple projects to develop bridges, schools and transportation networks.”

 Rafidain Bank Restructuring Program.. Justifications And Requirements

After the Prime Minister stressed during his meeting with representatives of Ernst & Young the importance of developing the work of the government banking sector to enhance the confidence of citizens and local and foreign investors in the government banking sector in particular and the economy in general, the restructuring of Rafidain Bank is the first step towards economic reforms in the banking sector towards restructuring Iraqi government banks such as Rashid, Agricultural and Industrial, in an effort to make them play a financial role that stimulates growth and stability.

Rafidain Bank has witnessed accumulated internal problems inherited from the previous regime and subsequent governments after the change, manifested around banking, credit and administrative policies that have undermined the bank’s credit capacity and limited its banking stability and operational and financial efficiency, as Rafidain Bank still suffers from many fundamental problems at the core of banking work, namely:

The balance sheet of Rafidain Bank suffers from debts owed by it as a result of issuing letters of guarantee and confirming credits in favor of government departments and companies, which, along with the accumulated interest, have exceeded their natural limits.

The bank’s credit rating has decreased.

Limited ability to keep up with developments in the banking industry.

The decline in the bank’s ability to meet its obligations according to profitability indicators, capital adequacy indicators, the ratio of equity to total assets and the ratio of equity to total deposits, which indicates the weakness of the bank’s activity in meeting its credit obligations.

Rigidity of banking legislation and failure to build policies for developing banking services through advanced banking technologies.

Hence, it is expected that the restructuring will improve its performance in a way that will rehabilitate it to be able to increase its efficiency in managing its balance sheet and improve its ability to achieve profitability indicators, capital adequacy and resource employment indicators.

By redesigning the bank’s organizational structure, creating new departments and merging existing ones with new ones, the bank’s tools and objectives can be developed with the aim of improving the performance of the bank’s structure in the infrastructure of organization and supervision, solvency and liquidity rules, its lending policy and formulating its relations with other banks on the one hand and government units and others on the other hand.

Therefore, it is possible, on a theoretical level, after the restructuring process, that the bank’s performance will improve and its productivity will increase in the short and long term, and its financial and operational efficiency will be raised, as the cost of banking operations will be reduced and the process of participation in decision-making will move towards what is consistent with banking decentralization. It is expected that the new structure will aim to avoid credit bankruptcy by limiting the accumulation of ineffective balances and avoiding a credit crisis.

But in reality, we see that the restructuring process faces several challenges, the most important of which are the difficulty of attracting and attracting the required sufficient capital, low savings rates, weak capital market, high cost of modern technology and developing related systems, and high cost of training employees in the banking sector.

Therefore, the restructuring program should aim to secure two strategic requirements:

The first requirement: It revolves around the goal of restructuring the operating side with the aim of achieving its financial stability. The goal of restructuring the financial side in a way that restores the bank’s ability to comply with the minimum capital adequacy and other hedging requirements.

The second requirement: It includes two objectives. The first is concerned with restructuring the bank according to an accurate and clear plan for the short, medium and long term in the institutional and operational aspects, in a way that ensures the bank’s harmony with market conditions and customer service and in accordance with the hedging requirements contained in the Banking Law and the Central Bank of Iraq Law, and the requirements of compliance and competition.

As for the second, it is concerned with amending the laws, regulations and instructions that regulate the work of Iraqi banks in a way that qualifies them to work in light of modern banking standards and indicators to keep pace with market requirements and enhance the prospects and requirements of growth and stability in a way that serves the banking reform process.