The Central Bank of Iraq lists the reasons for the decline in foreign exchange reserves.
The Central Bank of Iraq lists the reasons for the decline in foreign exchange reserves.
2025-03-19 02:29
Shafaq News/ The Central Bank of Iraq announced on Wednesday a decline in its foreign exchange reserves during the third quarter of 2024, explaining the reasons behind this decline.
The bank stated in a report seen by Shafaq News Agency that “Iraq’s foreign currency reserves decreased by 0.52% during the third quarter of 2024, reaching 143.35 trillion dinars, compared to the same period in 2023, when reserves reached 144.10 trillion dinars.”
The bank attributed this decline to “the Central Bank’s resort to withdrawing cash liquidity from the market through enhanced cash sterilization operations, as part of its efforts to maintain monetary stability.”
The report added, “As a result of these measures, cash receipts increased from 18.46 trillion dinars to 20.09 trillion dinars during the same period.”
He also pointed out that “the decline in oil prices from $82.2 to $77.3 during the same period was another factor in the decline in foreign reserves.”
The bank explained that “the increase in receipts led to the depletion of a portion of net foreign reserves, and the issued currency increased from 100.06 trillion dinars to 104.13 trillion dinars, as a result of the increase in public spending, which in turn led to an increase in public debt.”
The Central Bank emphasized that “despite this decline, it still possesses large net foreign reserves relative to the money supply, which makes it relatively secure, according to international financial standards that set a minimum of 20%.”
It is worth noting that the internal monetary sterilization policy involves the central bank selling or buying financial assets in foreign currency with the aim of avoiding impacting the monetary base and limiting the effects of inflation resulting from cash flows.
shafaq.com
