Economist: Jordan is the biggest beneficiary of Washington’s decisions against Iraqi banks.
Economist: Jordan is the biggest beneficiary of Washington’s decisions against Iraqi banks.
5-4-2025
Al-Maalomah/Baghdad..
Economic expert, Manar Al-Obaidi, confirmed on Sunday that the US decision to restrict the operations of a large number of Iraqi banks, under the pretext of smuggling dollars to China and Iran, did not achieve its goals, but rather led to counterproductive results that increased the volume of remittances to the same countries.
Al-Obaidi said in a tweet followed by Al-Maalomah Agency, that “the US authorities had justified their decision by the fact that a large portion of dollar sales in Iraq are directed to China, which prompted them to suspend a number of Iraqi banks from foreign transactions, while maintaining the activity of foreign banks, especially Jordanian ones.”
Al-Obaidi pointed out that “official figures reveal a clear contradiction in this proposal, as the volume of imports in the first quarter of 2025 amounted to about $4 billion, compared to $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023, i.e. before the restrictions were imposed on Iraqi banks.”
He continued, “What actually happened was the exclusion of Iraqi banks from external financial activity, while the field was widely opened to foreign banks, especially Jordanian ones, which rushed to expand in the Iraqi market and benefit from the remittance movement.”
Al-Obaidi concluded by saying, “It seems that the issue is not related to trade or monetary policy, but rather to international relations for which the issue of dollar smuggling was used as a cover, which allowed foreign banks to control the Iraqi market, without changing the beneficiaries or the transfer directions.”
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