Iranian Rial

[screwball]

Iran gears up for trade, investment boom

News ID: 4147396 - Sat 18 November 2017 - 09:06

Economy

TEHRAN, Nov. 18 (MNA) –After decades of sanctions and taking apart from international lucrative markets, the Islamic republic Iran is now ready to take advantage of these opportunities.

Thanks to its rich economic and investment potentials, the majority Iranian industries are full of economic untapped opportunities especially the small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Regretfully, lack of global promotions on Iranian economic arena has led to the inattention of Iran potentials. Although the existing information about Iran is less widely and suitably published, many foreign business owners entering Iran are surprised at different infrastructures and advantages, and admit that Iran is not quite well known at the international.

At the moment, few countries could be seen in the world with Iran's conditions and opportunities for investment. After decades of sanctions and taking apart from international lucrative markets, the Islamic republic Iran is now ready to take advantage of these opportunities.

Meanwhile, following the implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran has received letters of credit (L/Cs) and finances from different countries which are keen to make investment in Iran.

Foreign Investment Projects

Head of Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance (OIETAI) Mohammad Khazaei has recently announced that Iran approved 31 foreign investment projects with a total value of $712 million, adding that OIETAI has approved over $21.8 billion worth of foreign investment since the eleventh government took office (in September 2013), IRNA reported.

Iran has absorbed $14 billion of the approved figure during the period, the official added.

Following the implementation of JCPOA, Iran has received letters of credit and finances from India, Russia, South Korea, China, Austria and Denmark, Khazaei stated.

He listed the €8-billion L/C from South Korean Exim Bank and Chinese $10-billion L/C and the €1-billion contract with an Austrian bank as Iran's main financial and banking achievements.

According to the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22), Iran should attract $3 billion in foreign investment annually.

Renewable Energy Sector

Meanwhile, Head of Renewable Energy and Power Utility Organization (SATBA) Mohammad Sadeqzadeh said that foreign investments worth $1.5 billion were attracted in the renewable energy sector.

He added that $4.1 billion in foreign investment projects in renewable energies has been registered.

During Iran Economic and Investment Opportunities Forum (IEIO 2017), which is scheduled for November 25-28 in Tehran, Iran will present investment opportunities valued at over $35 billion to foreign investors, said the event's executive secretary.

"Companies from China, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Russia, Japan, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, India, and Saudi Arabia active in various fields including tourism, clean energy, agriculture, oil, gas, petrochemicals and auto industry are to take part in the forum," Amirreza Hassani said.

The event, he noted, is to be held in cooperation with World Federation of Free and Special Economic Zones (FEMOZA), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank, European Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA).

Mining Sector

Recently, Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mehdi Karbasian announced that Iran is seeking $50 billion in investment for its mining industries out to 2022 and has signed agreements with several European and Asian banks in the past few months.

"We are in need of $50 billion for investment in the mining and mining industries of Iran," Karbasian told Reuters, speaking on the sidelines of the Imarc mining conference in Melbourne.

"In the past two months, we have had agreements with South Korea, Austria, Denmark and it's on the way for other countries like Germany," Karbasian added.

Foreign Investment Boom

A deal between world powers and Iran to wind back economic sanctions two years ago in return for modification on its nuclear program, has seen a boom in foreign investment in Iran, said an investor.

Diego Biasi, who is the CEO of Quercus Investment Partners, an infrastructure fund that specializes in renewable energy investments said that his UK-based fund is one of the world's largest investors in renewable energy.

Biasi told Sky News that there have so far been no concerns from investors about US President Donald Trump's policies towards Iran and the likelihood that they might return to a sanctions policy.

"By matter of fact, investors are increasing their interest in the opportunity that Iran is showing at the moment in the renewable energy sector," he said.

Biasi also said he has met a number of Australian investors during his recent visit to the country.

"Historically, Australia has been a trade partner of Iran before the sanctions, and is pushing new trade deals with Iran in the post-sanction era."

He said Australia's natural ability to supply solar power makes it an attractive market to invest in.

"In the foreseeable future, as we grow more in territories outside of Europe, we will be looking at Australia as one of the top priorities outside Europe," he added.

[blueskyline]

ritish foreign minister arrives in Tehran 09/12/2017 14:00

TEHRAN (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a two-day visit.  Johnson is visiting Tehran at the head of a political and economic delegation to hold talks with senior Iranian officials.  During the visit, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, as well as his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Jawad Sharif, will meet with President Hassan Rowhani, Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security Ali Shamkani and the Chairman of the Shura Council, Ali Larijani.

[blueskyline]

 2017

$5.6b of Foreign Funds Finalized in 100 Days

 

Foreign finance agreements signed in the first 100 days of President Hassan Rouhani’s second term amounted to $5.6 billion.

This was announced by Mohammad Khazaei, the director of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran–the main entity in charge of negotiating foreign finance deals.

Rouhani was reelected president in May.  

“Of these projects, 57 have received the official green light to employ funds worth more than $5.6 billion,” he said.

“In the past three years, credit line deals have amounted to about $27 billion, but the volume of the memoranda of understanding signed is much more and goes beyond $50 billion,” Khazaei added in an interview published by the news portal of the Economy Ministry to mark his 100-day performance report.

The official noted, however, that the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22) has envisioned $60 billion in foreign finance and foreign investment, so there is still room for more.

Iran has so far signed deals with China, South Korea, Austria and Denmark to receive foreign finance for its projects while negotiations with Japan and Italy are continuing.

The administration has had to respond to a number of criticisms, namely to claims that the Economy Ministry has paid little attention to the possibility of sanctions snapback.

“Our negotiations with countries such as Italy, China and South Korea with the aim of signing contracts took about three years so that issues such as this would be taken into account,” Khazaei said.

“Negotiations on interest rates, insurance fees and similar matters are not the main issues taking up the bulk of time and are resolved in a matter of few meetings. The main topics of discussion include the possibility of sanctions snapback,” he added.

  Sticking Issues

The OIETA chief noted that in addition to the likelihood of sanctions snapback, global concerns such as anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism  are also of utmost importance in such deals, causing them to drag for months on end.

“At present, we are negotiating with Italy and I hope negotiations will be finalized in the next few weeks,” he said, adding that the members of Italian negotiating team have changed several times in the past few years.

Khazaei further said Iran must show to the world through these deals that its banking system is credible and able to clinch deals with international counterparts because even if a portion of the potential funds remain unused, it would improve the country’s credit risk rating.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2016 upgraded Iran’s rating in the country risk classifications of the Participants to the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits. The international body improved Iran’s ranking one notch, moving it from 7 to 6.

The official noted that Iran has made headways in returning to the global economic scene, even as its relations with major international banks have yet to completely normalize.

Khazaei points to Iran’s status in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a founding member, which includes strong voting rights.

“It is no insignificant thing for Iran to count itself among the major founding members of a bank that is to become a competitor for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” he said.

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[blueskyline]

1. Economy
2. Business And Markets

Saturday, December 09, 2017

MRC: No Currency Shock Till March

 

 

 

The research arm of the Iranian Parliament has published a report on the status of the country’s foreign exchange market in the coming months, predicting a mostly stable environment by the end of current fiscal year (March 20, 2018).

Majlis Research Center confirms that the current rates of foreign currencies in Iran’s market are not so different from their real rates when accounting for trade volume, capital flow and difference between domestic and foreign inflation, among other things.

 "[Based on such facts] MRC does not see the possibility of shocks occurring in the rates of foreign currencies until the end of the current fiscal year," the think tank specifies in a report that analyzes the government's 2018-19 budget, IBENA reported.

The report, however, bases its forecast on the continuity of the current calm in the country's economic and political atmosphere.  

According to the report, despite all the expert views and legal mandates to reform the process of incorporating the oil revenues into the country’s budget and the need to separate forex policies from financial policies, oil revenues and foreign exchange rates in the country are still affected by global oil prices.

This, the think tank concludes, has to do with the fact that the country's oil windfall is calculated in US dollar terms.

As a result of this dependency, whenever the volume of production or the global price of oil drops, the government’s oil incomes also decline, which forces the government to increase the rate of foreign currencies in domestic markets to make up for its expenses.

The report goes on to talk about the long awaited promise of unifying dual foreign exchange rates that has been delayed several times.

CBI’s promise of unifying the rates by the end of the previous fiscal year (March 20, 2017) has remained unfulfilled, prompting CBI Governor Valiollah Seif to promise that the goal will be realized soon in the new administration that took office in the summer.

MRC notes that imports, which still benefit from official foreign exchange rates, account for less than 8% of all the imports.

This is while the gap between the official rate of the US dollar and its value in free market has been reduced to around 17% from 37% some four years ago.

Thus, the research body suggests that CBI might even be able to entirely eliminate the allocation of foreign currencies at subsidized rates and unify the dual foreign exchange rates if the bank has enough forex resources to control possible fluctuations that will result after the rate unification.

Iran currently uses two official and unofficial currency rates. The central bank and several administrations have discussed the issue of unifying these rates, as they give rise to rent seeking and corruption, but the plan is yet to be implemented.

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[pokerplayer]

1 minute ago, blueskyline said:

The research arm of the Iranian Parliament has published a report on the status of the country’s foreign exchange market in the coming months, predicting a mostly stable environment by the end of current fiscal year (March 20, 2018).

 

 

Awesome news, Thxs bluesky !!  That would be wonderful if came in about the same time as well !!

 

  pp

[Freedomwish]

2018 is really looking to shake $#!t up!!!  Okie dokie!! 

[pokerplayer]

Have not seen SB in awhile. I suppose he is a little frustrated as it is him that mostly brings the articles in. I would but usually by the time I run across them he has already posted them....  lol

 

  pp

[bohica]

any discussion about the Rail being accepted by local banks?

[Freedomwish]

19 hours ago, pokerplayer said:

Have not seen SB in awhile. I suppose he is a little frustrated as it is him that mostly brings the articles in. I would but usually by the time I run across them he has already posted them....  lol

 

  pp

Maybe he took a break?  Or prepping up to share a nice bottle of scotch set with us when hopefully this thing pops in March 2018?  Or sometime after the Dinar or Dong? Or both?! 

[Freedomwish]

14 hours ago, bohica said:

any discussion about the Rail being accepted by local banks?

Local banks is the US, nope. 

[screwball]

n International Monetary Fund team led by Catriona Purfield held discussions on the 2017 Article IV Consultation with Iran December 2–13.

At the end of the mission, Purfield made the following statement published on IMF's website:

Growth has begun to broaden to the non-oil sector. Real GDP growth is projected to reach 4.2% in 2017-18 and is expected to be sustained or even rise toward 4.5% over the medium-term, if financial sector reform takes hold.

Inflation is projected to pick up temporarily in 2018-19 from 9.9% in 2017-18, if a fuel price increase is approved, and returns to single digits in the medium-term aided by prudent policies.

Notwithstanding the recovery, the economy faces near-term challenges. Rising financial vulnerabilities and external uncertainty argue for the urgent implementation of the planned financial sector reform. A coordinated reform package that also sees the government take additional fiscal measures to reduce debt, unify the exchange rate and transition to a market-based monetary policy framework would send a strong signal of the authorities’ commitment to stability.

The faster implementation of structural reforms, completion of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism reforms and removal of obstacles to private sector development would allow growth to become more diversified, resilient and job intensive.

Credit institutions and banks need urgent restructuring and recapitalization. The conversion of unlicensed financial institutions into credit institutions helped curb excessive interest rate competition that eroded bank’s margins.

An asset quality review, related-party lending assessment and a time-bound action plan to recapitalize bank and address non-performing loans should start immediately. Recapitalization costs can be met through new long-term government bonds bearing market interest rates.

The Central Bank of Iran should be empowered with stronger supervisory and resolution powers to support the process. It has intervened in foreign exchange markets to stabilize the exchange rate amid high import demand and increased uncertainty.

Unifying the dual exchange rate and allowing more exchange rate flexibility would safeguard FX reserves, remove costly subsidies and promote competitiveness. Moving to a market-based monetary policy framework where CBI has greater independence and control over liquidity is essential to underpin low inflation and the credibility of the new exchange rate regime.

The amendments to the AML/CFT framework are welcome and should be passed before the end-January 2018 FATF action plan deadline. Continued progress on these fronts will facilitate reintegration into the global financial system by enhancing transparency and governance.

The reform of the universal cash transfer scheme to target the poor secures much needed fiscal space. Nonetheless, the financial sector reform will cause government debt and interest outlays to rise substantially.

The (IMF) staff recommends gradual fiscal adjustment—through measures to dedicate a share of oil revenue to cover interest costs on bank recapitalization bonds, further expand tax revenue by removing tax exemptions and implement pension reform within a comprehensive fiscal framework that brings debt to prudent levels.

A faster implementation of structural reforms that unshackles the non-oil private sector would lift growth potential and help address job challenges.

Despite recent improvements in the business environment, Iran needs to reduce red tape, reform state-owned enterprises and improve transparency about corporate beneficial ownership to attract investment and develop the private sector.

The staff welcomes the amendments to the Customs Law, which should lower the cost of trade and help exports to grow. A review of labor regulation could improve incentives for firms to hire.

Iran’s highly-educated women are an untapped source of growth and productivity. Reducing legal and, social barriers and pay gaps; subsidizing child care to low-income women; and tackling informality would create job opportunities for women and ultimately boost GDP.

More timely and comprehensive data would enhance transparency, inform policy design and support the reform program.

[screwball]

On 12/12/2017 at 11:55 AM, pokerplayer said:

Have not seen SB in awhile. I suppose he is a little frustrated as it is him that mostly brings the articles in. I would but usually by the time I run across them he has already posted them....  lol

 

  pp

Nah still here just dealing with some personal and family issues 

[screwball]

As far as I am concerned first quarter will be interesting, we know supplementary budget has new rate, and we knownthey have both banking reform bills...we also know they connect to postal swift around 23-25th December 

[screwball]

On 11/12/2017 at 9:12 AM, blueskyline said:

Thus, the research body suggests that CBI might even be able to entirely eliminate the allocation of foreign currencies at subsidized rates and unify the dual foreign exchange rates if the bank has enough forex resources to control possible fluctuations that will result after the rate unification.

Iran currently uses two official and unofficial currency rates. The central bank and several administrations have discussed the issue of unifying these rates, as they give rise to rent seeking and corruption, but the plan is yet to be implemented.

Yep just waiting...ready to rock and roll

[gregp]

25 minutes ago, screwball said:

Yep just waiting...ready to rock and roll

 

I’m over ready.  Thanks SB. 👍👍

[Freedomwish]

6 hours ago, screwball said:

Nah still here just dealing with some personal and family issues 

I'll share another toast in your name my friend, as you've been missed.  Hope all is ok on the home front. 

 

Cheers, 

Freedomwish and all 

[jaman]

Prayers and Blessings, Screwball hope all things work in your favor ,,,,, and to the Rest of the Family happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas and one Heck of a New Year 

[screwball]

here Are those banking reform bills talked about...

 

In its latest analysis of the Iranian banking sector, Capital Intelligence, the international ratings agency, noted that the repayment of government arrears to banks and the private sector is an urgent priority for Iranian banks to lift their weak capital adequacy ratios and allow their financing capacity to improve.

According to CIratings, this would revitalize the banks' function as financial intermediaries and may also support regular economic ties with foreign banks and/or strategic shareholders from outside Iran.

The banking sector in Iran continues to face significant headwinds, even after the partial lifting of sanctions, CI says.  

This is mainly related to a number of legacy problems that continue to drag banks' asset quality, profitability and capital adequacy, limiting their capacity to provide the financing for meeting the needs of the economy.

The challenges for the banking sector were clearly recognized by reelected President Hassan Rouhani in an address to the parliament where he renewed his promise to pursue reforms in the banking sector during his second term.

"Weak banking supervision, expansion of illegal credit institutions, improper monetary policymaking, financing the government through the banking system, false boom in the housing sector, moving a portion of the assets held by the banks to this sector and unregulated speculative activities of banks in the past decades have all created a plethora of problems in the banking system," he said.

The president referred to "major reforms in the government's budget, retirement funds, banking system, climate of doing business" as the focal points of the administration's reform plans.

The announced reforms also include overdue reforms of outdated banking regulations. Following an approval by the Cabinet on July 23, 2017, and a presidential endorsement, the Banking Reform Bill and the Central Bank Bill devised by the government to reform the banking system after almost 45 years have now been sent to the parliament.

Banking Bills

The Banking Reform Bill is expected to replace the current Usury-Free Banking Law.

The last amendments to the Usury-Free Banking Law were made in 1983, while the law itself specifies that upgrades are needed every five years.

The reform bill outlines the procedures that banks and non-bank credit institutions need to follow to obtain a license from the Central Bank of Iran. It explains all banking operations and services, notifies regulations for the establishment of foreign bank branches and sets limits on their investments.

Other articles put in place a professional set of criteria for appointing top executives and board members, and make provision for setting up internal risk and auditing committees while detailing financing and capital adequacy rules.

On the other hand, the Central Bank Bill, whose law was first passed in 1972, aims to update banking regulations. Improving the independence of CBI, enhancing monetary policymaking and enforcing CBI's supervision over the monetary market are among its key goals.

The bill puts added emphasis on supervision and obliges currently unlicensed credit institutions to "cooperate with CBI supervisors and investigators, and provide them with all the relevant information within the framework of regulations".

It stresses that "CBI's oversight over credit institutions is comprehensive", meaning that in addition to evaluating the operational risks of the institution, it has the mandate to evaluate the risk emanating from the parent company that owns the credit institution.

The reform measures also include articles on bankruptcy and merger of banks and credit institutions. The goal of these reforms is to "ensure the stability, health and sustainability of the monetary and banking regime and safeguard the interests of depositors".

In line with this, the bills also allow the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which guarantees customers' deposits up to a ceiling, to continue with its operations and obligate "all credit institutions" to become members and make contributions.

The Iranian Cabinet first approved the change in early December 2016, but it has to be approved by the parliament and ratified by the Guardians Council to become law.

 

 

[screwball]

Notice that they also,talk about a deposit guarantee fund, same as Iraq? Also housing plan? Same as Iraq? Also voting on budget supposedly same time? Only difference Iran has said supplementary budget has new rate in it! Sheets getting exciting jan and feb going to be real exciting 

[screwball]

3 hours ago, jaman said:

Prayers and Blessings, Screwball hope all things work in your favor ,,,,, and to the Rest of the Family happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas and one Heck of a New Year 

Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and family..

[screwball]

o finalize the process of transferring the bank accounts of state-owned enterprises to the Central Bank of Iran to boost transparency, the regulator has issued a directive setting a deadline of three months for all the accounts to be moved.

“All the entities subject to the law [of transferring state-owned accounts to the central bank] who have not integrated their accounts in the central bank are hereby obliged to do so within a maximum three months based on a directive approved by the Money and Credit Council at the joint proposal of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, the Planning and Budget Organization and the Central Bank of Iran,” reads CBI’s latest statement published on its official website.

“All banks and non-bank credit institutions in coordination with the Economy Ministry are obligated to cooperate with the central bank in implementing this directive,” the policymaker emphasized.

The government’s decision to move its accounts from agent banks to CBI was announced on August 2016 at the behest of President Hassan Rouhani, in line with its policies to promote transparency and avoid dodgy practices related to expenditure.

In late September, Masoud Rahimi, director of CBI’s Office for Banknote Issuance, announced that a total of 4,200 state accounts have so far been moved to the central bank.

However, even after the number of accounts registered by state-owned companies was drastically reduced to 70,000 from its previous 220,000, it means that a meager percentage of the accounts have been moved so far and that is why the central bank is upping the ante.

  Rules and Exceptions

The three-month deadline, which lasts until the end of the current Iranian fiscal year on March 20, has been notified to the banking system as part of an article of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22), which also includes other details.

For one, it stresses that “all bank accounts–including rial and foreign exchange accounts–belonging to ministries, government institutions, companies, organizations, universities and public non-government entities that employ funds from the annual budget” must be opened strictly through the Treasury i.e. the Economy Ministry’s Department of Financial Supervision and Treasury Affairs and with the central bank.

This is aimed at increasing the speed and efficiency of the flow of revenues and expenses of the government, boosting transparency by creating the ability to exert online supervision over the accounts and reduce the adverse effects of the government’s financial operations on the banking system.

“Credit institutions” i.e. banks, non-bank credit institutions, Qarzol-Hassaneh (interest-free) funds and credit cooperatives under the direct supervision of the central bank, in addition to state-owned insurance companies, are currently exempt from transferring their accounts until further notice.

“Other public non-government entities” i.e. municipalities and their affiliated institutions and companies whose majority (+50%) shares are owned by municipalities are also obligated to open their accounts through the Treasury and CBI, while banks have been strictly prohibited from opening any more accounts for any of the state-related entities mentioned in the directive.

The central bank has been considered as the sole entity in charge of providing the infrastructure for transferring the accounts and exerting active online supervision over them while all state-related entities have been legally bound to conduct their banking transactions through accounts opened with the central bank and Nasim–CBI’s core banking system.

The aforementioned entities are allowed to conduct banking services not offered by the central bank without opening any account and through regulations such as those dealing with the rates and fees approved only by the Money and Credit Council.

The country’s Armed Forces, including the army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the police are not obliged to move their accounts to the central bank and are allowed to keep their accounts with “agent banks” i.e. banks that have clinched agency deals with the central bank.

CBI has been designated as the supervisory entity for banks and credit institutions while the Treasury does the same for all state-related entities mentioned in the directive.

As part of an earlier directive notified by the central bank about three months ago, any and all similar directives communicated by the policymaker are to be implemented within a maximum of seven days, unless a different timeline is mentioned in the directive.

[screwball]

Just now, screwball said:

The three-month deadline, which lasts until the end of the current Iranian fiscal year on March 20, has been notified to the banking system as part of an article of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22), which also includes other details.

Interesting timeline 

[screwball]

majority of goods are imported into Iran using foreign currencies at official rates, meaning that those able to engage in imports through this channel rack up significant gains, the deputy head of Energy Commission at the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said.

“We have two rates for the US dollar, one official rate and one free market rate. Data show that 60% of all imports are done with the official rate while only 40% are done using the market rate,” Reza Padidar also told ISNA.

“Considering the discrepancy between the official and market rates [of USD] that currently stand around 6,000 rials, it is projected that about 160 trillion rials ($3.87 billion) go to those using official rates,” adds the official who is also a member of the board of representatives of ICCIMA.

At the time of going to print, the US dollar was exchanged for 41,860 rials in the free market while the official rate devised by the Central Bank of Iran was 35,909 rials.

This is while in the budget bill of the fiscal 2018-19, which was recently submitted to the parliament by President Hassan Rouhani, the greenback was proposed at 35,000 rials, prompting an uproar of criticism mainly from pundits and private sector figures.

Masoud Khansari, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, was among the critics, saying the discrepancy will create a variety of problems for traders and exporters, and called for faster rate unification.

Padidar also backed the unification of the dual foreign exchange rates, saying allotting official rates to some while others have to deal with more expensive market rates is in itself a transparency disrupting factor.

“Transparency must be created in the fiscal 2018-19 annual budget and the way to that transparency is moving toward rate unification,” he said.

[screwball]

Padidar also backed the unification of the dual foreign exchange rates, saying allotting official rates to some while others have to deal with more expensive market rates is in itself a transparency disrupting factor.

“Transparency must be created in the fiscal 2018-19 annual budget and the way to that transparency is moving toward rate unification,” he said.

[markb57]

looking at these numbers, it makes you wonder if they will ever get close to 1-1. Just like the Iraqi's....