Baghdad / Obelisk: Adviser to the Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, on Monday, February 21, 2022, suggested that the dollar exchange rate against the Iraqi dinar would remain at its current position.
Saleh said, “It is the monetary policy that determines the exchange rate according to the Central Bank Law,” adding that “unfortunately, there have been many interventions.”
Salih added that “coordination between monetary policy and fiscal policy in a rentier country such as Iraq is very important, especially since the reserves supporting the Iraqi dinar come from the Ministry of Finance,” noting that “according to the statement of the Central Bank, there is an understanding and insistence on maintaining the stability of the Iraqi dinar exchange rate at its current price. And that the bank’s statement referred to the insistence and defense of the exchange rate.”
He believed that “certainly, there are benefits in the decision to raise the exchange rate and a lot of harm,” adding that “the Ministry of Finance was hedged against the issue of harm, especially in terms of the poor classes and the extent of inflation.”
Saleh concluded that, “according to the statement of the Ministry of Finance, it appears that the previous parliament reduced the budget and increased support for the poor classes, which is an important point in my estimation,” noting that “more than a trillion dinars were deleted from the allocations for the categories covered by social welfare salaries.”
The Central Bank announced that the dollar exchange rate is stable and there are no intentions to change it, pointing out that the need for concerted efforts by government institutions to improve the economic levels of the poor classes.
The bank indicated that there are no intentions to change the current exchange rate, especially after the positive results it achieved during the last period.
He added that the discussions that took place during the hosting of the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq in the House of Representatives on Saturday, corresponding to February 19, 2022, stressed the need for “the concerted efforts of all government institutions to improve the economic and living standards of the poor classes that were affected by the high rate of inflation.”
