In my opinion, it’s not the value of the dinar that’s keeping investors out of Iraq.
It’s the lack of banking and investment laws coupled with the crippling corruption that is Iraq.
Look at it this way, the total market capitalization for the ISX is roughly $9 billion dollars.
There are a bunch of folks that could literally buy every stock available on the ISX, in the big picture, $9 billion isn’t a prohibitive number.
So, why hasn’t anyone done that, heck, they could own every business on the ISX for that amount.
The answer is security, stability, laws, infrastructure and politics.
When Iraq can make the environment more conducive to fair and open market policies, the investors will come, even if the dinar is still at 1182.
Historically the CBI has only talked about raising the value.
However, I can remember when the dinar was 1166 to the dollar and now it’s 1182, they’ve already reversed course on what they’ve previously stated.
Moving from 1182 to 1400/1500-$1 isn’t so far fetched to me, especially with the price of oil at $40 something a barrel.
