The Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Al-Alaq, confirmed today, Saturday, that payment transactions at fuel stations in Baghdad recorded more than (44) billion dinars in July of this year.

Al-Alaq said during a workshop specializing in electronic payment, “The Central Bank of Iraq is working side by side with the government program and the Prime Minister’s direction to support electronic payment.”

He added: “We are proud of what we have achieved so far. In 2023, the amounts processed through the national switchboard witnessed a significant increase, reflecting the development of the infrastructure, the expansion in the use of electronic payment channels, and the impact of the campaign launched by the Prime Minister to activate electronic payment operations in general, and in the government sector in particular.”

The Governor of the Central Bank explained that “these upward trends continued to develop in 2024, as the amounts processed in the national switchboard systems amounted to more than (2) trillion Iraqi dinars in July alone, compared to (800) billion dinars in the same month of 2023, after which it became (1) trillion dinars in January of 2024, and government payments witnessed an additional increase, reaching (912) billion Iraqi dinars last July compared to (287) million dinars in the same month of 2023.”

He pointed out that “payment operations at fuel stations in Baghdad alone increased significantly, recording more than (44) billion dinars in July of this year, compared to (183) million dinars in July of 2023 and (4.5) billion dinars in December 2023.”

Al-Alaq revealed “a huge increase in the number of POS points of sale to reach more than (50) thousand POS points of sale this year, compared to approximately (11) thousand POS points of sale at the beginning of 2023, and thousands of them in government institutions after they were zero before the launch of the campaign in June 2023.”

He expressed his “hope that government institutions would adopt the establishment of specialized units in electronic payment technologies to work on following up and developing this important aspect.”  link

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Tishwash:  Al-Alaq: The Central Bank is working with the Prime Minister’s direction and the government program to support electronic payment

– Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, confirmed today, Saturday, that the Central Bank is working with the Prime Minister’s direction and the government program to support electronic payment.

 The Central Bank stated in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that “the Governor of the Central Bank participated in a specialized workshop to accelerate the transition to electronic payment, sponsored by the Prime Minister, and organized by the Osool Foundation for Economic Development and Sustainable Development.”

The Governor said during his speech at the workshop – according to the statement – that “the Central Bank of Iraq works side by side with the government program and the Prime Minister’s direction to support electronic payment, and we are proud of what we have achieved so far,” noting that “in 2023, the amounts processed through the national switchboard witnessed a significant increase, which reflects the development of the infrastructure and the expansion in the use of electronic payment channels and the impact of the campaign launched by the Prime Minister to activate electronic payment operations in general, and in the government sector in particular.”

He added that “these upward trends continued to develop in 2024, as the amounts processed in the national switchboard systems amounted to more than (2) trillion Iraqi dinars in July alone, compared to (800) billion dinars in the same month of 2023, after which it became (1) trillion dinars in January of 2024,” noting that “government payments witnessed an additional increase, reaching (912) billion Iraqi dinars last July compared to (287) million dinars in the same month of 2023.”

Al-Alaq pointed out that “payment operations at fuel stations in Baghdad alone have increased significantly, recording more than (44) billion dinars in July of this year, compared to (183) million dinars in July 2023, and (4.5) billion dinars in December 2023,” revealing “a huge increase in the number of points of sale (POS) to reach more than (50) thousand points of sale this year compared to approximately (11) thousand POS points of sale at the beginning of 2023, and thousands of them in government institutions after they were zero before the launch of the campaign in June 2023.”

The governor expressed his “hope that government institutions will adopt the establishment of units specialized in electronic payment technologies to work on following up and developing this important aspect.”  link

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Tishwash:  Iraq’s External and Internal Debts: Details and Figures from the Prime Minister’s Financial Advisor

The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, revealed the size of Iraq’s internal and external debts.

Saleh said, in a statement to the media followed by “Al-Eqtisad News”, that “Iraq is no longer, in terms of its balance of external debt, one of the countries with high debts, as the external debts due during the current decade do not exceed, in all cases, 9 billion dollars, and the general budget provides sufficient annual allocations to service all debts, which means paying installments and interest, according to the nature of the debt, which is what is called debt amortization.”

He added, “Accordingly, Iraq has not recorded any default in paying its external debt obligations over the past twenty years, as payment mechanisms are carried out in accordance with strict financial and banking rules that are highly coordinated between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Iraq, which has shown sustainable stability in creditworthiness indicators with international rating agencies, since the adoption of the first credit rating for Iraq in 2016 until the present time.”

Saleh continued, “As for the internal debt, which amounts to nearly 78 trillion dinars or about 60 billion dollars, it is a debt existing within the government financial and banking system (exclusively) at a rate of 96%, and most of that debt was issued with debt instruments represented by government bonds of various terms and treasury transfers with a term of one year, and all of them carry an interest rate not exceeding 3% annually (with the exception of the recent issues of achievement bonds or others, in which the interest rate rises between 6.5 and 8.5% annually.”

He pointed out that “mechanisms were adopted to pay interest or repay debt installments from the annual allocations allocated in the federal general budget. It is noted that the monetary authority, by deducting those internal government debts specifically, was able to liquidate them or convert them into cash by discounting them at the Central Bank of Iraq and through secondary market operations and within the scope of monetary policy activities that target growth in money supply, regulate economic liquidity and address the manifestations of economic recession during the past ten years.”

He added, “The Central Bank’s holdings of internal public debt instruments (specifically), whether bonds or treasury transfers, are estimated at about 45% of the total internal debt.”  

Saleh pointed out that “the growth of the domestic debt in particular during the last decade came as a result of two dual crises, the first: the financial-security crisis between 2014 and 2017 resulting from the drop in oil prices to less than half of their expected or indicated levels in the general budget law, accompanied by the increase in the expenses of the war on ISIS terrorism, which continued until Iraq was completely liberated from the clutches of terrorism.”

He continued, “The other crisis is the financial-health crisis that worsened in early 2020 and until 2021, which witnessed a sharp deterioration in global oil prices and reached less than half of their expected price rates as well, accompanied by the health crisis (the Corona pandemic) and the closure of the global economy, which caused a deterioration in budget revenues, whether oil or non-oil.”

He added, “Since the annual public budgets depend in their revenues on the revenues of exported oil, the revenues of which were exposed to a sharp decline during the two aforementioned dual crises, there was no suitable financial refuge for the financial authority except to borrow from the domestic banking market.”

He stressed that “despite the above, all of Iraq’s internal and external public debts do not exceed $70 billion today, and their ratio to the gross domestic product is about 30%, while the global standard ratio indicating the ability to bear the debt reaches 60% according to European Union standards.”

He concluded his speech by saying, “Therefore, there is effective cooperation today between the financial and monetary authorities, to draw a roadmap for extinguishing the internal debt in addition to the external one, and in accordance with the financial strengthening policy aimed at reducing the balance of public debt and reducing the annual deficit in the annual budgets, and in accordance with the standard ratios adopted globally in determining the debt-bearing capacity.”  link

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