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 […]
By John Lee. Iraqi MP and member of the Parliamentary Economic and Investment Committee, Nahida al-Dayni, has ruled out deleting the zeros from the Iraqi currency soon. Speaking to All Iraqi News Agency (AIN), she said: "The process of deleting the zeros from the Iraqi currency will not be done soon due to the lack […]
Perhaps the biggest story of recent days was the shock dismissal of the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), Sinan al-Shabibi, and the issuing of arrest warrants for him and many of his staff. The nature of the allegations against Mr Shabibi are not entirely clear, but appear to center around manipulation of […]
By John Lee. Investigators in Iraq have opened an inquiry into alleged manipulation of the exchange rate between the Iraqi dinar (IQD) and the US dollar, and arrest warrants have reportedly been issued for several officials including the head of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI). Hassan Karim Aati, spokesman for the Commission on Integrity, […]
By Mohammed Hamid al-Sawaf. 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. Unofficial money changers are common in Iraq – and trade is particularly brisk in the tourist town of Karbala. But recently a gang of fraudsters […]
