The Iraqi government increased the US dollar price sold to currency exchange companies and banks through the Iraq Central Bank, a member of parliament said Wednesday (Jan. 6).
Head of the Finance Committee in Iraqi Parliament, Ahmed Haji Rashid, told NRT that the Central Government used increasing dollar price as a policy fix to fill the gap in the budget deficit.
“The Iraqi government sells oil for [US] dollars, so increasing the dollar price will add more profits to the government,” Rashid said.
According to the Finance Committee’s chair, the Central Bank added 26 Iraqi dinars (IQD) for per US dollar, and it is doing this “secretly” to avoid public protests.
“The government accomplishes this policy secretly and gradually in order to avoid public protests inside Iraq,” Rashid said. “It will leave a bad effect on markets and make famine in the country.”
Iraq is now in an economic crisis due to the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants, the fall of oil prices in the world markets, which dropped to under $35 a barrel on Thursday (Jan. 7) reaching the lowest point in over a decade. That drop has been steady since 2014.
Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings in modern times.
According to economic analysts, the Iraqi government tries to use some solutions to tackle the economic crisis by decreasing dollar rate to markets, which helps the government to raise its revenue, as it relies on selling oil for dollars.
original source: http://nrttv.com/EN/Details.aspx?Jimare=4717