TNT:
Tishwash: The Council of Ministers decides to increase the capital of the Rafidain Bank and to pay Iraq’s share in the World Bank
The Council of Ministers decided, on Tuesday, to increase the capital of the Rafidain Bank and pay Iraq’s share in the World Bank.
Al-Sudani’s office stated in a statement that “the cabinet agreed to increase the capital of the Rafidain Bank, which was approved by the Committee for Determining Corporate Capitals in the Ministry of Finance, by an amount of (212,000,000,000) dinars, only two hundred and twelve billion dinars, to be added to the bank’s current capital of : (26,000,000,000) dinars, only twenty-six billion dinars, to become after the increase (238,000,000,000) dinars, only two hundred and thirty-eight billion dinars, to raise the capital of the Rafidain Bank on par with other banks, based on the provisions of the Public Companies Law (22 of 1997 ) the average”.
And the Council approved, “Within the course of financial and economic relations with international financial and banking institutions, the recommendation of the Ministerial Council for Economics (23072 s), regarding the payment of Iraq’s share in the World Bank; by the Ministry of Finance assuming the payment of an amount (26,898,925,642) dinars, only twenty-six billion and eight hundred.” Ninety-eight million nine hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and forty-two dinars in cash, after the approval of the Federal General Budget Law for the year 2023, taking into account the new exchange rate, between the date of the claim and the date of payment link
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Iran News:
Harambe: CBI Governor Underlines Iran’s Policy of De-Dollarization | Farsnews Agency (5/10/23)
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin underscored Tehran’s solid resolve to diminish the role of the US dollar in trade ties with other countries, and said that Tehran will soon host an international meeting which will help the policy of reducing dependence on the US dollar in financial transactions.
The CBI is seriously pursuing the policy of de-dollarization and intends to use alternative options to accelerate the global trend, Farzin said on Tuesday during an open session of the parliament.
“It should be noted that de-dollarization is one of the important policies which we are sensitive about,” he added.
Several countries have stressed that they no longer have trust in the US currency because it has become an unreliable financial instrument.
According to the CBI governor, Iran will host a meeting of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) in the near future, which will bring together all nine member states and several central bank governors from regional and Asia-Pacific countries.
He stressed that the meeting will accelerate the global trend of de-dollarization.
The ACU aims to facilitate settlement of payments on a multilateral basis and promote the use of participants’ currencies.
“In fact, bartering, rather than using the dollar; reaching bilateral monetary agreements, which is being finalized with several countries; and multilateral monetary agreements are the three main topics of the aforementioned international meeting that will help materialize de-dollarization,” Farzin explained.
On Sunday, Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi ordered the CBI to lay the ground for conducting foreign trade transactions using Iran’s national currency rial.
Farzin said on Monday that de-dollarization is a strategic policy pursued by the CBI, adding that the US is exploiting the dollar as a political tool.
Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States of using the dollar as an instrument to wage economic and political war. They have touched on the policy to use other currencies in place of the dollar, and stressed that the dollar should be gradually ditched from global transactions.
The dollar’s share in global reserves fell ten times faster last year than over the past two decades, according to reports. The process has accelerated after other countries saw Russia’s US dollar and Euro-denominated assets frozen abroad and Moscow cut from the SWIFT global financial messaging system.
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen has recently admitted that the role of the dollar as the world reserve currency could diminish due to Washington using its leverage over the global financial system to pursue its geopolitical goals through sanctions.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14020219000681/CBI-Gvernr-Underlines-Iran
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Harambe: IMF Cautions Zimbabwe Against Plan for Gold-Backed Digital Money | Bloomberg (5/9/23)
The International Monetary Fund cautioned Zimbabwe against adopting a gold-backed digital currency to deal with macroeconomic challenges like volatility in the local unit, saying it should rather liberalize its foreign-exchange market.
The central bank started selling digital tokens to investors on Monday for a minimum price of $10 for individuals and $5,000 for corporates and other entities, as part of efforts to reduce demand for US dollars that now supersede the local unit as the preferred currency for transactions. The token will later also be used for transactions.
“A careful assessment should be conducted to ensure the benefits from this measure outweigh the costs and potential risks including, for instance, macroeconomic and financial stability risks, legal and operational risks, governance risks, cost of forgone FX reserves,” an IMF spokesperson said Tuesday in an emailed response to questions.
The Washington-based lender urged authorities in the southern African nation to rather use conventional measures to address economic challenges. Those measures include maintaining a tight monetary-policy stance and accelerating the liberalization of the foreign-currency market by removing restrictions on the exchange rate at which banks, authorized dealers, and businesses transact, it said.
The Zimbabwean dollar has depreciated 40% against the greenback this year to trade at 1,070 on the official market and between 1,500 to 2,300 on the parallel market.
The IMF last year also raised issue with the Central African Republic’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. A decision the nation reversed a year later.
