By John Lee. An American man has pleaded guilty to operating an illegal business selling Iraqi dinar. ArgusLeader reports that 60-year-old David Olmsted, also known as Dale Cooper Jr., received daily Federal Express packages with shrink-wrapped piles of dinar bills that had been smuggled out of Iraq and into Jordan. The man, from South Dakota, was […]
By Mustafa Habib. This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. During the past month of violence, the Iraqi dinar’s value has fluctuated radically. Now black market money men are using Iraq’s poorer passport holders to take […]
By Omar al-Shaher for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Over the last few days, the government in Baghdad has been preoccupied with attempting to control the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar. The rate has been […]
By John Lee. The First Deputy Chairman of the parliament has reportedly demanded that the Central Bank of Iraq address the fluctuating exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar, and disclose the reasons. Shafaaq News says that Qusay al-Suhai chaired a meeting of the Finance Committee, in the presence of central bank […]
By Omar al-Shaher for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. According to experts, the hard-currency auction governed by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) — the authority in charge of implementing monetary policy in the country — has ushered in the […]
By Marc Snaid. The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) has announced that the introduction of the new Iraqi currency has been further delayed due to teething problems with the cutting-edge technology that it will employ. Radical new functionality including fingerprint recognition and near-field communication (NFC) promises to create a world-leading new monetary system, which will […]
By Omar al-Shaher for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. There were conflicting accounts of the reasons for the rise in the value of the US dollar against the Iraqi dinar earlier this month. Politicians and economists have said that Iranian […]
By Omar al-Shaher, for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Privately held Iraqi banks have almost entirely relinquished their traditional functions — such as giving out loans, lending credit and issuing letters of credit — due to default risks. Instead, they are […]
By John Lee. Iraq made its first major move in years to boost its gold reserves, joining central banks from emerging market economies such as Brazil and Russia in diversifying its foreign reserves. According to a report from the Lebanese Daily Star, central bank purchases have been one of the biggest drivers of gold's rally […]
By John Lee. A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee has ruled out dropping the three zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 because "the ground is not prepared yet". MP Majida al-Timimi told AIN: "The process of deleting zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 depends on the nature of the policy of the […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that "thousands" of people are still speculating on a huge upward revaluation of the Iraqi dinar, which it describes as "one of the chanciest investments in the world". It quotes a Las Vegas-based speculator, who previously lost most of his retirement fund on the stock market, as saying: "It's not […]
By John Lee. Sinan al-Shabibi (pictured), the former head Iraq's Central Bank who was removed for suspected mismanagement and currency manipulation, has dismissed the charges against him as baseless and trumped up. Speaking to AFP, he said authorities had compromised the bank's independence to access its reserves, adding that the government had been "spoiled" by […]
