Al-Sudani urges the Central Bank to activate steps to sell foreign currency at official rates
Al-Sudani urges the Central Bank to activate steps to sell foreign currency at official rates
2022-12-27 02:25
Shafaq News/ The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’a Al-Sudani, urged, on Tuesday, the Central Bank of Iraq to activate steps to sell foreign currency at official rates to the population, with the aim of curbing the rise in the exchange rate of the dollar against the local currency.
This came during his meeting today with the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Mustafa Ghaleb Makhaif, according to a statement issued by the Sudanese media office.
According to the statement, Al-Sudani “listened to a detailed presentation from the bank’s governor regarding the rise in the foreign currency exchange rate, and the most important measures taken by the bank in this field.”
The statement stated that “the Prime Minister urged the Central Bank to achieve general stability of prices and the exchange rate, in accordance with the tasks stipulated in Articles (3 and 4) of the Central Bank of Iraq Law, which stipulate that the Central Bank aims to achieve stability in the local exchange rate, and organize and monitor the work of Banks, enhancing the safety and efficiency of payment systems, and developing the payment system.
Al-Sudani stressed the need for the bank to take the necessary measures to prevent illegal speculation and everything that harms the local market and leads to higher prices.
He also urged activating steps to sell foreign currency at official prices to citizens through purchasing with electronic cards, opening sales outlets for travelers, or clients outside Iraq, or financing foreign trade, in accordance with the fundamentalist contexts and international standards for opening documentary credits and remittances.
The Governor of the Central Bank presented to the Prime Minister the positive position of the financial situation, stressing that the crisis regarding foreign currency is an emergency crisis for technical reasons, and coincided with the work of the new electronic platform and the delay in transfers due to the Christmas holiday.
The governor praised Council of Ministers Resolution No. 352 of 2022 to stop the work of pre-collection of taxes and customs duties on goods entering government ports, prevent double taxation, and collect them according to the approved contexts at border crossings.
And the exchange rate of the dollar continues to rise since days against the Iraqi dinar in the main stock exchange in the capital, Baghdad, and in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and it rose today to approach the barrier of 160,000 dinars for the category of 100 dollars, and this rise is the first of its kind since 2003 until now.
The rise of the dollar in the Iraqi local markets led to an increase in the prices of foodstuffs in the wholesale markets, which are considered the main artery of the citizen’s life.
In today’s statement, the central bank attributed the dollar’s rise against the dinar to “temporary pressures resulting from internal and external factors, given the adoption of mechanisms to protect the banking sector, customers, and the financial system.”
The bank confirmed that foreign trade requirements (for the purposes of documentary credits or transfers) are fully covered by the official price (1465) dinars to the dollar for documentary credits and (1470) dinars to the dollar for transfers.
shafaq.com
