Devaluation of the dinar..!
Devaluation of the dinar..!
2021-12-13
Muhammad Abdul-Jabbar Al-Shabout || These days are passing the first ominous anniversary of the decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar in the most heinous deception and fraud against the Iraqi people. As a direct result of this decision, the government’s imports increased, and the purchasing power of citizens decreased. And it does not need specialists and experts to find out. The petrodollar is the main source of money in Iraq. If the value of the Iraqi dinar was reduced, the size of the state’s financial income increased by the same percentage after converting the oil dollar into dinars. This process benefits the government and the Ministry of Finance in particular, but in return it harms the Iraqi people, especially the employee class, which constitutes the main nerve of economic life in Iraq, in addition to the outrageous rise in the prices of goods, most of which are imported and are paid for in dollars, whose value has increased in dinars. Here, too, the consumer pays the difference in price. The government cited many justifications and “benefits” for the devaluation of the dinar. The government’s words contained many inaccuracies, because the real benefit of this decision is to reduce the financial pressure on the Ministry of Finance and rid it of the financial distress that it was said to be suffering from. It is also a weak argument because oil prices continued to rise after the decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar. Prior to this decision, experts and economists presented many proposals and ideas to the governments of Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Mustafa Al-Kazemi, but the two governments ignored these proposals, while the current government only went to the proposal to reduce the value of the dinar. After a year of the fateful decision, no one can deny the fact that the Iraqi citizen is the first victim of this decision. And no matter how the beneficiaries, politically and financially, try to cover this up, their attempts fail because the citizen who buys flour, rice, fat, sugar, cleaning materials and others knows that the high prices of these materials and others are the direct result of the unjust decision. The catastrophe is that the government, which benefited from the devaluation of the dinar, did nothing to help the citizens affected by its decision. The suffering of Iraqis multiplied as a result. It is even more unfortunate that most of the political forces colluded with the government in its unfair decision and did not stop it from taking a stand keen on the interests of the citizens, while the representatives of these forces remained silent about the decision. There is no doubt that Iraq needs a radical reform of its distorted economy in all respects. Surprisingly, Article 25 of the constitution says: “The state guarantees the reform of the Iraqi economy according to modern economic foundations, in a manner that guarantees full investment of its resources, diversification of its sources, and encouragement and development of the private sector.” But we have not seen any serious steps to reform the Iraqi economy since the adoption of the constitution until today. It has not taken deliberate steps to move from a socialist-oriented economy to a free one, has not taken serious steps to increase the productivity of society in agriculture and industry, has not taken serious steps to protect local production, has not taken serious steps to move from a rentier and consumer economy to a productive economy, and has not taken serious steps to transition From a single economy (dependence on oil) to diversifying sources of money and maximizing state revenues. And so on in various fields. The result is the survival of the Iraqi economy in a state of underdevelopment and consumerism, excessive reliance on imports, and spending the bulk of the state budget on salaries. All this necessitates going to the development of a grand strategy to reform the economy and thus improve the living situation of citizens, provided that this strategy is developed by experts specialized in the economy, finance and industry and implemented by competent, loyal and honest people.Subscribe to
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