Sunday Afternoon Iraq Economic News Highlights 10-2-22
Iraq’s Oil Exports To America Rise Within A Week
Economie| 10:51 – 02/10/2022 Baghdad – Mawazine News The US Energy Information Administration announced, on Sunday, that Iraq’s oil exports to America increased by more than 200,000 barrels per day during the past week.
The administration said in a report, “The average US imports of crude oil during the past week from eight countries amounted to 5.610 million barrels per day, down by 455,000 barrels per day from the previous week, which amounted to 6.065 million barrels per day.”
She added that Iraq’s oil exports to America amounted to an average of 202 thousand barrels per day last week, higher than the previous week, when oil exports to America reached an average of 120 thousand barrels per day.
She pointed out that “most of America’s oil revenues during the past week came from Canada, at a rate of 3.755 million barrels per day, followed by Mexico at a rate of 598,000 barrels per day, and oil revenues from Saudi Arabia at a rate of 422,000 barrels per day, and then Brazil at a rate of 299 thousand barrels per day.”
According to the administration, “the amount of US imports of crude oil from Ecuador amounted to an average of 191 thousand barrels per day, and from Colombia at a rate of 72,000 barrels per day, and from Trinidad and Tobago at a rate of 51 thousand barrels per day, while no amount was imported from Russia and Nigeria.” Ended 29 / M 99 https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=207090
The Stability Of The Dollar Exchange Rates In The Local Markets
Economie 2022-10-02 | Source: Alsumaria news 1,275 views Today, Sunday, the dollar exchange rates witnessed stability in the local markets.
And the selling prices of the dollar were recorded at 147,500 dinars per 100 dollars, while the purchase prices of the dollar were recorded at 147,400 dinars per 100 dollars.
Earlier, he decided Central Bank of Iraq Adjusting the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, as the purchase price of the dollar from the Ministry of Finance amounted to 1450 dinars, while the price of selling it to banks was set at (1460) dinars per dollar, while the selling price to the citizen is (1470) dinars per dollar. LINK
Gold Prices In The Local Markets
Economie 2022-10-02 |1,327 views Gold prices stabilized, today, Sunday, in the local markets.
The price of a 21 carat gold weight, the most traded, reached 341 thousand and 380 dinars, excluding the fees of the craftsman. As for the price of a gold weight of 24 carat, it amounted to 390,140 dinars, excluding the fees of goldsmithing. LINK
US Report: Iraq Lost 551 Billion During The Maliki Era
Posted On2022-10-02 By Sotaliraq According to an American report, Iraq lost $551 billion during Nuri al-Maliki’s presidency of the government over two terms due to corruption.
A report by the American (Chatham House) Institute, which was followed by (Al-Mada), stated that “the wave of violence witnessed by the Green Zone in Iraq attracted the attention of the world, but its roots extend to the conflict that has not reached a solution until the present time.”
The report added, “Iraq, two decades after the change of the previous regime, was never free of conflict.”
He stressed, “The violence is linked to corruption in key sectors and harms Iraqis daily,” stressing that “the country lost about 551 billion dollars during (the era of Nuri al-Maliki’s presidency of the government); Between 2006 and 2014 due to corruption.”
The report pointed out that “the ruling elites depend on corruption through the power-sharing system to benefit from the wealth and budget estimated at $100 billion annually.”
He stressed that “those huge budgets have not succeeded in providing basic public services because of corruption.”
And the report went on, “Iraq does not have clean water and most of the medicines have exceeded their expiry date, and these factors helped the country to have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.” LINK
OPEC + Considers Reducing Oil Production By More Than One Million Barrels Per Day
Energy Economy News-Baghdad Sources in OPEC told “Reuters”, today, Sunday, that the OPEC + bloc will discuss reducing oil production by more than one million barrels per day when it meets on the fifth of October.
This number is slightly higher than the cut estimates that were presented last week, which ranged between 500,000 and one million barrels per day.
A source in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that the OPEC + group will hold a meeting on the fifth of October in Vienna with personal attendance, for the first time since March 2020.
The option to participate online will be available for some delegations who may not be able to travel to attend the meeting due to the short time available.
OPEC +, which includes OPEC and independent oil producers, including Russia, meets against the backdrop of the decline in oil prices after reaching their highest level in years in March, and sharp market volatility. 4 . views Added 02/10/2022 – 12:41 PM Update 02/10/2022 – 12:46 PM
https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=29994
FRANCE 24: The Public Sector Is A Dream Of Iraqi Youth And A Nightmare For The State
Reports Economy News-Baghdad “Fair” monthly salaries and stability attract many Iraqi graduates to government jobs, but the public sector is “exhausting” state finances in a country in political crisis and the private sector does not meet the aspirations of the youth.
For years, the city of Nasiriyah, the center of Dhi Qar governorate, has witnessed demonstrations almost every day of graduates looking for employment in the public sector, which Maitham Muhammad Reda, 32, sees as a legitimate right.
There, in southern Iraq, which suffers from neglect, only “wasta” guarantees a job for its seekers. But Maitham has no wasta, so he goes directly to the governor to demand an appointment.
The case of the young man summarizes the general economic scene in Iraq, a country of 42 million people, and where the state is the primary employer.
Oil-rich Iraq, which accounts for 90% of its revenues, relies to a large extent on the public service. Young people see it as a haven amid the political and economic turmoil the country is going through, knowing that four out of every ten economically active youth are unemployed.
For Muhammad Al-Obeidi, who has been employed in one of the ministries for 19 years, working in the public sector is positive because “the salaries are fair,” as he sees it, as well as “benefits and guarantees for the future” after retirement at the age of “55 or 60 years,” which allows a person to continue working. In the private sector.
‘corrupt practices’
Despite the youth’s desire for it, the public office has a price that worries Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. During a press conference last summer, Al-Kazemi said that “past governments did not provide job opportunities for citizens, and there was chaos in appointments in Iraq.”
He believed that “this large increase in the number of Iraqi state employees in an absurd populist manner exhausted the Iraqi economy.”
And since 2004, a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime until 2019, “the increase in Iraqi state employees has reached 400%,” according to Al-Kazemi, noting that the public sector “constitutes two-thirds of the Iraqi budget.”
This makes the fragile economic fabric in a country “where the public sector employs 3.3 million people, or about 37.9% of the economically active population, one of the highest rates in the world,” explains Maha Katta, Iraq coordinator at the International Labor Organization.
“This is a lot of pressure on the government,” she says.
Al-Kazemi acknowledges this, but his ability to reform is without difficulties, as his survival at the head of the government depends on negotiations between the two Shiite camps that dominate the political scene in Iraq. A year after the October 2021 elections, the two sides are still unable to agree on the new government.
In the public sector as well as in the private sector, employment is usually done by agreement and coordination between members of the same clan or one political party.
The quota system and wasta contributed to “consolidate the continuation of corrupt practices that destroy the moral and material foundations of the country,” as former Finance Minister Ali Allawi wrote in his resignation letter to the Council of Ministers.
Allawi talked about corruption, which “can be described as a cancer that can kill the body,” considering that the state “has not been liberated as a whole from the control of political parties and foreign interest groups.”
– “freedom” –
This may be a good opportunity for the private sector to start attracting young people, but Maha Katta of the ILO believes that companies should first “improve working conditions”.
“Medical insurance must be paid, and their salaries must be at the same level as those of the public sector. This is more complicated, because in the private sector, what matters is profit.”
However, some small private projects have been launched. Its owners hope to make profits in an economy in the process of rebuilding, after decades of wars and conflicts, and the International Monetary Fund expects it to grow by 10% this year.
Maytham Saad, a 41-year-old Iraqi, established a company “Barhieh” three years ago to market dates in southern Iraq.
The man who runs a company of 30 employees admits that he has had difficulties finding employees, especially young people. “But once they are employed in the private sector, as long as their manager is good, they feel stable because they can negotiate their salaries,” he says.
“They also have freedom, they have vacations, and they are actually part of a group,” Saad adds.
14 . views Added 02/10/2022 – 12:17 PM Update 02/10/2022 – 12:48 PM
https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=29993
The Decline In Iraq’s Oil Revenues In 3 Months… And An Expert Explains The Reasons
Energy Economy News-Baghdad The economic expert, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, explained the reasons for the decline in Iraq’s revenues from the sale of oil in the past three months.
Al-Marsoumi said in a Facebook post that “Iraq’s oil revenues decreased last September by more than one billion dollars compared to last August, and by about two billion dollars compared to last July.”
He added, “Revenues amounted to $8.773 billion in September, down from $9.784 billion in August and $10.6 billion in July.”
He explained that “the reason for the decline is due to the drop in the price of a barrel of Iraqi oil from 104 dollars in July to 96.05 dollars in August and then to 88.83 dollars in September.”
He pointed out that “Iraq is still unable to reach its production quota from OPEC Plus, which amounts to 4.651 million barrels per day, while Iraq’s current production did not exceed 4.525 million barrels per day.” 26 . views Added 02/10/2022 – 11:52 AM Update 02/10/2022 – 12:49 PM
https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=29992
