An expert expects the world to return to the gold standard

The Independent / – The Russian economist, Pavel Segal, indicated that the possibility of re-linking paper currencies to the gold standard is being discussed more and more in the world, pointing out that there are positive and negative aspects of this step.

“The rise in the volume of unsupported currencies in the world over the past years has prompted traditional economists to start thinking about the world’s return to the gold standard,” said Segal, CEO of Opera Russia.

The veteran economist pointed out that gold prices do not show large fluctuations like what happens to most currencies in the world and stock markets, and that the precious metal helps fight inflation, but he noted that the adoption of the gold standard opens the way for rapid devaluations and revaluation of currencies, which It prompted the world at one time to give up on the thought of this move.

Prior to that, the economist, Peter Schiff, expected that gold would resume its role again in the global monetary system, in light of the economic crisis the world is witnessing.

The expert expected a rise in precious metals prices in the near future, and said that “while the world is dealing with the Corona crisis, gold and silver prices are witnessing a rise, there are big movements in gold and silver coming.”

The economist advised everyone to stay away from the dollar before it was too late, and said that “the yellow metal will resume its role in the global monetary system, as the world will return to the gold standard.”

Gold is a safe haven in times of nervousness and volatility, and after the outbreak of the Corona crisis, the prices of the precious metal rose significantly, and today the yellow metal is trading at the level of 1923 dollars per ounce.

Mustaqila.com

The Federal Court rejects the lawsuit filed regarding raising the price of the dollar (for now).

Baghdad / Obelisk: The Federal Supreme Court rejected, on Monday, April 4, 2022, the lawsuit related to the re-exchange of the US dollar in relation to the Iraqi dinar to its predecessor, at an amount of 120 thousand Iraqi dinars for every 100 US dollars.

On March 14, the court decided to postpone the case for raising the dollar exchange rate to April 4.

Almasalah.com

The people are waiting impatiently for the formation of a government that expresses the will to live a decent life

Baghdad – The President of the Republic, Barham Salih, congratulated the Iraqi people on the arrival of the month of Ramadan.

Saleh said in a post seen by “Nass” (April 1, 2022), that “by the blessed Ramadan, I offer my sincerest congratulations and best wishes for good and peace to prevail in our homeland and our people, which strikes the most wonderful images of compassion, generosity and steadfastness.”

He added that this month “is an occasion to overcome the political crisis in the spirit of brotherhood and patriotism, and to respond to the aspirations of our people, who are waiting impatiently to form a government that expresses their will to live a decent and free life.”

Nasnews.com

After decades of complete isolation from the world, Iraq opens its doors again!

Baghdad/Sky Press – Many have begun to flock to a country that has just opened its doors to the world. A year ago, entry visas were granted upon arrival in Baghdad to many foreign nationals. After decades of isolation imposed by wars, the world had forgotten its important archaeological sites, some of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which compete with countries such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

Some tourists come individually, including content creators who explore the country and post videos on YouTube about food, population and archeology to their tens of thousands of followers, while others come in tour groups with private local companies that organize tours from Baghdad to Basra in the south and Mosul in the north.

With the exception of religious tourism, which suffers from the same problems, the sector is relatively new to the country and still lacks organization, funding, the necessary infrastructure and government interest, according to the owners of private companies who are striving on their own to attract tourists.

Ileana, who lives in California and tours Iraq with a tour company, “Bilita”, says that she has dreamed of visiting Iraq since she took art history lessons from it 20 years ago.
“When I knew we could get a visa on arrival, I came as soon as I could,” she says. “I’m excited to see everything related to the cradle of civilizations.”

“The first thing I noticed is the warmth, generosity and kindness of the Iraqi people, they welcome you with a smile, they are very polite and they are very proud of their country,” she added.

Despite her enthusiasm and passion for Iraq’s history, Eliana, a 50-year-old who works at Google, has noticed that the infrastructure is deteriorating.

Babylon, which turned into a military base for the international coalition during the American intervention, still bears the scars of the past, as if it was not accustomed to visitors.

On the other side of the site, construction and maintenance work, workers in yellow helmets and phosphorous jackets, prepare pieces of iron and cement, while waste is piling up around, and wild weeds and thorns extend over some of the ancient city walls.

American Justin Gonzalez, 35, talks with a smile about his experience in Iraq. “On my government’s website, there is a warning against going to Iraq because of the danger of (kidnapping) and (violence), but I did not see any of that.”

In the nineties of the last century, during the time of the siege and international sanctions, the Iraqis became completely isolated from the world, and this isolation was not broken after 2003 after the American intervention and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. It was followed by a series of wars, which made the image of Iraq in the world limited to scenes of destruction.

Many Western governments still officially warn their nationals against traveling to Iraq, such as the United States and France, whose State Department website refers to a “terrorist threat” and a “kidnapping risk”.

However, Baghdad is seeking to take off its tourism sector despite the challenge of the lack of infrastructure. In this regard, Ali Al-Makhzoumi, the owner of the “holiday”, which has been organizing tours for foreigners for 8 months, says, “In order for the infrastructure to develop, the private sector must invest in hotels, amenities and buses.”

His company receives 30 to 40 tourists per month, who tour the country for about ten days.

Skypressiq.net

The exchange rate in Iraq… real or not?

The exchange rate represents one of the policies that governments can resort to to address an economic problem afflicting the country, as happened in Iraq after 2003 and the last of which was in 2020.

Where the Iraqi government, through the Ministry of Finance and in agreement with the Central Bank, reduced the value of the Iraqi dinar in exchange for raising the price of the US dollar to 1450 instead of 1182 at the end of 2020, for financing (deficit financing), monetary (maintaining foreign reserves) and economic (improving production competitiveness) reasons in the medium term as well as the long term.

The source of the dollar, the state or the private sector?

By virtue of Iraq owning a large oil reserve estimated at more than 145 billion barrels, producing more than 4 million barrels per day, and exporting more than 3,400 thousand barrels per day, in 2020, the Iraqi economy has become an oil economy.

It depends on oil in large proportions, more than 40% of the output and more than 90% of public revenues, and more than 99% of merchandise exports.

The state also dominates over oil, as all dollar oil revenues are recorded in the general revenues section of the budget after being converted into the Iraqi dinar to feed public expenditures.

The neglect of the private sector, due to the lack of an attractive investment environment for national as well as foreign private investment, means a rise in production costs and prices, respectively, a decline in competitiveness and other commodity exports, and a recent decline in the dollar returns of the private sector.

Given the economy’s dependence on oil on the one hand, the state’s dominance of oil on the other, and the neglect of the private sector on the third, the state has become the main source of dollars in the Iraqi economy.

The mechanism

Where the state exports oil through the Ministry of Oil and SOMO in particular, and the Ministry of Finance receives the oil dollar, and since it needs the Iraqi dinar to finance the general budget, it will sell the dollar in exchange for the Iraqi dinar.

Assuming that the central bank did not enter as a seller of the dollar, at this moment we will notice a significant increase in the dollar exchange rate, due to the increased demand for the dollar to meet imports, and that the main source of the dollar is the state and the central bank buys it from it, and the private sector cannot satisfy the demand for the dollar because it is basically weak, as mentioned above, and therefore the exchange rate in Iraq is not real.

The real exchange rate is determined by the real forces of supply and demand

Because the real exchange rate is determined according to the forces of supply and demand in the market without the intervention of the central bank, meaning that it reflects the reality of the economy, is it a strong or weak economy? Because a strong economy will be able to provide the dollar through its competitiveness, increase exports, and provide the dollar in a way that balances the demand for it.

And the opposite is true, as is the case of Iraq, given the weakness of its real economy away from the state. It cannot provide the dollar in a way that achieves a balance because it loses production, competitiveness and export. Rather, it imports most products from abroad, which means there is an increase in demand for the dollar in order to satisfy the import in exchange for the weak supply of the dollar from Before the real economy, and if the Central Bank did not intervene to provide the dollar in the market, the price of the dollar would have risen to record numbers.

In other words, the Iraqi dinar exchange rate is a price supported by the Central Bank by entering it as a seller of the dollar, providing it in the market, through the currency window, this saving means the lack of scarcity of supply and thus achieving (imaginary) balance because it was not achieved by the forces of supply and demand on the dollar that depend mainly on the real economy.

Reforming and running the economy

It is not possible to liberalize the exchange rate and leave it to be determined according to the forces of supply and demand for the dollar in order to reach the real exchange rate without working first to provide the drivers of dollar savings in the real economy.

This reform requires, first of all, fighting corruption, providing an attractive investment environment for private investment in various real productive sectors, and involving the private sector in investment to be more capable of taking action and investing.

Conclusion

Operating the economy with high efficiency means increasing production at a lower cost, increasing exports, and providing the dollar away from the state, in a way that achieves balance with the demand for it, and here the exchange rate will be a real price because the bank did not intervene through the currency window to achieve balance.

Annabaa.org

The Minister of Finance confirms from Doha the importance of the white paper to restore balance to the Iraqi economy

Baghdad / NINA / – Minister of Finance Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi participated in the activities of the Doha Forum for International Dialogue held in the sisterly State of Qatar in its 20th session, which will continue for the period from 26 to 27 March 2022.

Allawi said, according to a statement by the ministry: The goal of reaching a world free of crises, violations and wars is not easy to achieve, unless there are good intentions, international will and equal dialogue to resolve differences and reduce conflicts to silence the sound of war and the omens of destruction, so health recovery is no longer worrisome after suffering severely from the effects of the Corona pandemic. It is the multiplicity of foci of armed conflict and the expansion of its scope that troubles the world.

He added: The Iraqi society suffers from chronic and costly crises deepened by fluctuations in oil prices in the global market, due to the impact of the Corona pandemic and terrorism, and that the decline in Iraqi oil revenues and terrorism were sources of concern at all governmental, political and popular levels, and it is a legitimate concern in the context of the historical deterioration of the global economy, so it was The national need for a financial strategy for two things, the first is short related to borrowing for the purposes of meeting urgent needs, and the second is long-term, represented by the white paper for economic and financial reform to avoid expected fluctuations and achieve reassurance of a decent life, and create new economic partnerships at all levels.

Allawi explained the importance of the white paper embodying the re-balancing of the Iraqi economy and putting it on a path that allows the state to take appropriate steps in the future to develop it into a dynamic diversified economy that creates opportunities for Iraqis to live a decent life by proposing a set of comprehensive reforms and policies, and the protection of weak and fragile groups in society.

The forum, which carried the slogan “Transformation into a New Era”, aims to launch a dialogue on the critical challenges facing the world, promote the exchange of ideas and policy-making and provide viable recommendations.

Ninanews.com

Financial Control reveals important information regarding exchange rates

Mawazine News – The former Director of the Office of Financial Supervision, Salah Nouri, today, Monday, the truth of the news that talks about the bankruptcy of the Central Bank if the exchange rates of the dollar change.

Nuri said, in a statement to / Mawazine News /, that “the bankruptcy of the Iraqi Central Bank is incorrect, due to the presence of 3 international economic reserves for it,” noting that “the hard currency of the dollar, and the gold reserves whose global prices are good, and the purchase of US treasury bonds, which are of great value.” High value and interest, and therefore bankruptcy is highly unlikely.”

He added, “Manipulating the exchange rates of the dollar leads to an increase in imports and the exit of the currency outside the country, knowing that the dollar reserves of the Central Bank rose after changing the exchange rate of the dollar.”

Mawazin.net

AL-SADR: THE POSITION OF THE DESIGN ALLIANCE REPRESENTS THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING TO END CORRUPTION AND DEPENDENCY

Baghdad – Mawazine News, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, valued the position of some members of the Tasmeem Alliance for attending the parliament session, stressing that this represents the beginning of the beginning of an end to corruption and dependency.

In a statement received by Mawazine News, the private office of Mr. Al-Sadr stated that “Mr. Muqtada Al-Sadr made a phone call with Asaad Al-Eidani, appreciating his honorable position with some of the brothers from the design alliance to attend the parliament session that took place today, stressing that their position represents this The beginning of the initiation to end corruption, dependency, and consociationalism to complete the formation of a national majority government.”

Mawazin.net

Al-Halbousi: The presidential election session will be held next Wednesday

Al-Kazemi: The political forces are required to recalculate in order to cross this dangerous stage

Shafaq News / On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi described the current stage as “dangerous”, calling on political forces to re-calculate in order to cross this crisis.

This came in a speech during the conference held on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the legislation of the Survivors Law, according to a statement by Al-Kazemi’s office received by Shafaq News Agency.

Al-Kazemi said, “I call on all political forces to work and form a government that works as quickly as possible to serve its people, including the Yazidi survivors… Respecting constitutional timing is respect for the constitution, respect for the logic of the state, and respect for people’s needs.”

He added, “We have to look for logical solutions that reflect the political maturity of everyone, and reflect a high degree of responsibility of the political forces regarding their duties in parliament or outside parliament. We must work, and we must all integrate to cross this dangerous stage.”

Al-Kazemi continued, “What is required of the political forces to recalculate in order to cross this stage, today there is a global crisis, which is reflected in every part of the world, and in addition to this crisis, our region has enough complex and intertwined crises, this scene is dark yes, but there are Hope, and we can turn the scene into an opportunity for success, and there is an opportunity, and this opportunity cannot be practically translated into a caretaker government.”

Al-Kazemi said, “Courageously and without any fear or apprehension, this government stands and assumes responsibilities, but this is not logical or realistic. Security and Food Security”.

The Prime Minister addressed the national political forces by saying, “The citizen is our responsibility, the homeland is our responsibility. Enough of divisions. We must work for the country and move to a new stage for the future of Iraq and the sons of Iraq and our grandchildren.”

Shafaq.com