Monday Evening Opinions - 6:45 PM CST - 2/13/2023

[ronscarpa]

REMEMBER, no one really  knows what will happen, or when.  They're simply stating their opinions based on what they perceive to be happening in Iraq... So, take everything with a grain of salt ....  RON 

 

 

Sandy Ingram  The Iraqi cabinet set the official exchange rate at 1300 Iraqi dinars per 1 US dollar.  The change is based on the Central Bank of Iraq's suggestion/recommendation. The previous rate was at 1460 Iraqi dinar to 1 dollar...the Iraqi dinar has lost more than 10% of its value in recent months because of pressure from the United States to stop the flow of dollars to countries under U.S. sanctions - Iran and Syria. This is not the end of the road.  Far from it.  But the beginning.  For years the official rate was 1182 dinars...Iraq's central bank devalued the dinar in December of 2020 to 1460 dinars per dollar...[We are] viewing this 1300 rate change as a return to the pre-covid exchange rate plus or minus inflation...

 

Walkingstick  IMO these meetings that they had with the private banks with the CBI bank itself, they turned over the exchange rate...they were all agreed upon...at the onset at least 1 to 1. That's extremely important  in order for the float to work properly...

 

MarkZ  in Iraq: Article: “A significant decline in currency auction sales to the Central bank of Iraq” Why is this one important? …It appears that the rate change is starting to work. What they are wanting to do is keep dinar in the hands of the citizens instead of US dollars. Then when there is a reinstatement the people will benefit from it. ...over the weekend we did see some interesting things. There is a big difference between the official CBI rate and forex rate to the market rates in the region. Anywhere from 500+ dinars to $1 to the official 1300. The dollar purchases are down 62% as of today. I was looking for a more substantial rate change…lower than the 1300 before we see the big rate change…but maybe this will be enough for them before they do the big change.

 

Militia Man  Iraq was on the "Black list", then it was moved to a "grey list" and then just yesterday/day before they were moved from that "grey list" by the European Union to the "white area"...at the same time there was things going on in Washington DC.  

 

Pimpy   Let's get clarity about what's really going on over there in Iraq in regards to the decline of the Iraqi dinar... Everybody knows the coordinating framework, Maliki and all his friends...do the bidding of Iran...the currency auctions were being used as a way to funnel money into Iran when Iran is under sanctions.  This is a big No-No...so they sanctioned a lot of these people but...they were still able to smuggle money...It's very very profitable for somebody like Maliki, who owns a bank and is a high ranking, very powerful influential politician within Iraq.  Unfortunately when your politicians do these types of things and the United States can't find a way to stop what's going on they'll take it out on the citizens of their country..[Post 1 of 2]

Pimpy  The issue with the currency is this - there is not enough United States dollars in Iraq...Since it [dollar smuggling] was so out of control the United States decided to limit the amount of dollars...putting the squeeze on the US dollar which is in high demand in Iraq...legally you're only supposed to get 1450 [Now 1310] dinars for every US dollar.  On the black market...people were swapping the US dollar for around 1700 dinars because the dollars were so scarce and people in other counties [trade goods] wanted the dollar...this was causing the huge gap between the official rate and the market rate so cash smuggling or laundering becomes really profitable...so they're trying to put a crackdown on that..[Post 2 of 2]

 

Henig  Comment: "There sure isn't many articles about the budget lately?" There've been a few, but mostly rehashing over old material and couched in different information...IMO we won't have a lot of new info until the Council of Ministers releases it to Parliament. Remember they said they were 95% done with it multiple times. No idea why they're waiting, but here we sit.

 

Clare  Article: "Governor of the Iraqi Central Bank: Launching a second package of facilities to support the exchange rate" Quote: "The delegation of the US Federal Reserve Bank and the US Treasury discussed a number of support mechanisms for the Central Bank of Iraq. In order to enhance his ability to deal flexibly with crises during this stage"

 

 

[Luigi1]

51 minutes ago, ronscarpa said:

Pimpy   Let's get clarity about what's really going on over there in Iraq in regards to the decline of the Iraqi dinar... Everybody knows the coordinating framework, Maliki and all his friends...do the bidding of Iran...the currency auctions were being used as a way to funnel money into Iran when Iran is under sanctions.  

 

 

IMHO the RV-RI will never see the light of day until the Maliki-Iran issues are solved.

They've known ever since 2004, that the Maliki-Iran owned false front banks to money launder & steal Iraq's treasures & did absolutely nothing about it.

[Sage449]

Does anyone actually believe Malika & Iran issues will be resolved? I doubt it, hoping to move without that resolution.  I don't think I'd live that long.

[screwball]

6 hours ago, ronscarpa said:

Militia Man  Iraq was on the "Black list", then it was moved to a "grey list" and then just yesterday/day before they were moved from that "grey list" by the European Union to the "white area"...at the same time there was things going on in Washington DC.  

So this means Iraq could dump the USD because the US won’t lift sanctions? Does this mean they can rv against basket with other currencies? Or go to euro? Who knows!