American newspaper: The measures of the dollar crisis are causing suffering to some Iraqis

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[size=52]American newspaper: The measures of the dollar crisis are causing suffering to some Iraqis[/size]

[size=45]Translated by: Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]A report by the American newspaper The New York Times dealt with the hardships and great unintended suffering caused by ordinary Iraqis from the country who intend to travel outside Iraq and need dollar currency, resulting from the recent banking procedures and provisions that the United States and Iraq followed to limit the illegal leakage of hard currency to criminal entities. beneficiary outside the country and accused of money laundering,[/size]
[size=45]Pointing out that the demand for the dollar has increased and that the cost of buying it in Iraqi dinars has risen at some of the local currency dealers.[/size]
[size=45]Long queues of Iraqis who plan to travel outside the country form in the early hours of the day outside the exchange shops, carrying bags full of Iraqi currency with them. These days, it is difficult to find an exchange shop that has remaining dollar balance, and the shops that have balance run out early.[/size]
[size=45]Abu Ali, the owner of an exchange shop in the Karrada area, says, “I have no dollars left.”[/size]
[size=45]The new provisions, which were applied by agreement between the United States and Iraq, require more transparency regarding bank transfers of dollar currency from the Iraqi reserve account for currency deposited with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.[/size]
[size=45]These provisions came into force late last year, and are part of a long-awaited plan to modernize Iraq's financial system as it begins to comply with provisions that most countries follow and adapt to provisions requiring greater transparency in international money transfers.[/size]
[size=45]However, some Iraqi merchants and others who used to pay in dollars via international transfers did not like this procedure or they were unable to implement the requirements of transparency, and for this they resorted to exchange shops, causing a great demand for the dollar in the Iraqi street and its high price against the dinar.[/size]
[size=45]Every day, the Central Bank of Iraq facilitates financial transfers from its account at the Federal Bank in New York for the benefit of Iraqi merchants and people to pay the prices of goods imported from outside Iraq. Money transfers are important because few commercial entities have international bank accounts.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, a share of the hard currency is sent in cash to the Central Bank of Iraq, which goes to exchange shops and banks, and is disbursed in large part to Iraqis who intend to travel abroad.[/size]
[size=45]Until the day when these provisions were implemented, American officials were unable to track the course of financial transfers of hard currency and whether they ended up with parties that were originally included in the economic sanctions lists.[/size]
[size=45]According to the new provisions, it requires persons or companies that request money transfers for dollar currency to reveal their identity and return and the identity of the party or persons that will receive the money, and then the information is reviewed by an electronic system as well as by experts in the Central Bank of Iraq and the Federal Bank in New York before The transfer is being disbursed.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi economist, Ahmad al-Tabaqjali, head of the Asian Union Fund for Iraq, says that the new system allows banks around the world to conduct electronic checks on remittances issued from Iraq to other countries.[/size]
[size=45]Tabaqjali added, “In short, this banking system facilitates the detection of suspicious cases.”[/size]
[size=45]The financial advisor to the Iraqi government, Mazhar Salih, says that many requests are now rejected, noting that sometimes questionable identities are the reason, and at other times the reason is that many Iraqi merchants do not have the required licenses to import goods or that they are not legally registered. They are commercial entities and therefore constitute a breach of Iraqi law. Salih added that these refusals created an increased demand for the dollar at the Iraqi exchange shops, and its exchange rate rose significantly to Iraqis who have a legitimate need for it.[/size]
[size=45]Since 2003, there are two rates for the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar. There is the official rate set by the central bank and an unofficial rate for the black market and is often higher. When there is a scarcity of the dollar currency, its price increases on the black market in exchange shops.[/size]
[size=45]The differences between the two prices create difficulties for the Iraqis, as happened to the woman, Jannah, who is a mother of four children. She says she is saving money to buy a $250 refrigerator.[/size]
[size=45]In October, it cost 320,000 dinars in Iraqi dinars, but today, due to the scarcity of the dollar, its price has risen to 375,000 dinars, and she says, “The new price is beyond my purchasing power.” According to Central Bank data on daily dollar financial transfers, the new provisions have reduced the flow of dollars into the market by approximately 65% ​​compared to the period preceding these measures, and the daily rate of dollar sales decreased from 180 million to 67 million dollars.[/size]
[size=45]Since that time, transfers began to rise, but they are still less than half of the rate they were before the implementation of the new banking system.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that until now it is not clear exactly the extent of the decrease in illegal financial transfers.[/size]
[size=45]Douglas Suleiman, president of the Gulf States Institute in Washington and former US ambassador to Iraq, says, “I cannot limit the rate of manipulation and fraud at 90%. Perhaps the rate of manipulation is 45% and another 45% is incompetence or just not knowing how to deal with the new provisions.”[/size]
[size=45]About the New York Times[/size]
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