Iran’s central bank plans to delete 4 zeroes from the currency

(International: Al Furat News) A deputy in the Islamic Shura Council in Iran, (parliament) revealed the intention of the central bank in the country to delete four thousand of the Iranian currency.

“The governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdul-Assad Hamati, announced that the liquidity of 1700 thousand billion Tuman lost 30 percent of its capacity due to inflation.”
He added that the governor of the bank confirmed that the bank plans to delete four zeros from the national currency and that he should take the initiative quickly and the banking system should be reformed. ”

Papai said to the meeting of the bloc held on Sunday in the presence of Central Bank Governor Abdul Nasser Hamti to discuss the status of the country’s reserves Of hard currency and inflation in society. ”

He said that the governor of the bank pointed out at the meeting that the central bank is facing two important challenges are hard currency and the national currency and at a time when the people suffer from the volume of inflation, we find that the value of hard currency went to stability, ” He added that Hamati also pointed out that the US president is forced to retreat daily After claiming the collapse of the Iranian economy, he says today that the Iranian national currency is now besieged. ”

“The central bank governor has announced that the government is never planning to revalue hard currency and we should achieve the best results at the lowest cost,” Babai said.

The governor said that “the reason for non-decline in the value of hard currency is due to everyone’s perception that the value of hard currency will increase again, noting that the road is open with China and South Korea is on its way to deal with India while talking with Turkey in this area.”

Haji Babaei said Hamati said it was not possible to hold much hopes on the European channel but that its demand should be met. ”

Alforatnews.com

Iraq is the sixth largest economic country in the Middle East

Iraq is the sixth largest economic country in the Middle EastSaudi Arabia topped the Middle East as the largest economy in 2018 in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) at current “nominal” prices of $ 784 billion.

According to the analysis of the report unit in the newspaper “Economic” based on the data of the site spectator index and local statistical bodies of countries, Turkey came second with a nominal gross domestic product of $ 713 billion.

In third place came the UAE with a nominal GDP of $ 432 billion, Iran with $ 430 billion and Egypt with $ 249 billion.

Nominal GDP is the market value of the total final goods and services produced in a given country at current market prices.

Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at current prices by 6.4 percent in 2019 to 3.13 trillion riyals.

By returning to the Middle East nominal GDP ranking in 2018, Iraq ranked sixth with a domestic output of $ 230 billion, followed by Qatar with $ 188 billion, Kuwait with $ 144 billion and Oman with $ 81 billion.

Lebanon ranked $ 10 billion, followed by Libya with $ 43 billion, Jordan with $ 41 billion, Bahrain with $ 39 billion and Yemen with $ 28 billion.

The Middle East is a geopolitical term for a geographical region located in the western part of Asia and part of North Africa. These countries are characterized by the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf. This term has been used since the 1950s 19th century AD.

Aynaliraqnews.com

Do you really think they are going to stay at 1190?

Iran pushes Iraq to maintain trade without US dollar

Iran is exerting considerable pressure on the Iraqi government to compel it not to abide by the US sanctions that have been imposed on Tehran in order for it to change its policies in the Middle East and abandon its nuclear program. These pressures include using the Iraqi dinar and Iranian rial in the trade exchange between the two countries.

Iraq serves as Iran’s economic lifeline, and Iran has great influence in the political and economic decision-making process. In addition, it uses the Iraqi territory to achieve its interests in the Arab region by supporting fighters loyal to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. This comes despite reservations expressed by some Shiites who recently set the Iranian Consulate ablaze in the city of Basra. During demonstrations against the rampant financial and administrative corruption, protesters chanted slogans calling on Iran to stop its interference in Iraqi affairs.

The Central Bank of Iran is struggling to reach an agreement with Iraq on the use of the dinar or the Iranian rial for trade with Iraq, but Iraq needs the approval of the United States, which is still determined to allow Iraq to only import natural gas from Iran for electricity supply for only a short time.

A source in the Central Bank of Iraq told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “An Iraqi delegation that visited the United States in December and that included executives from the Central Bank of Iraq and several ministries such as the Ministries of Oil and Electricity discussed the exclusion of Iraq from the US sanctions on Iran.”

The source added, “The delegation failed to achieve good results, and it only allowed Iraq to buy Iranian gas for its power plants in return for the dinar. The government pledged to do so and opened an account for the Iranian company at a government bank in the dinar currency.”

According to the same source, “The United States has categorically refused to entirely exclude Iraq from the sanctions and it only allowed natural gas exports from Iran. This exception may include electricity in the coming period because the United States considers Iraq as an economic lifeline for Iran.”

“The United States is working to enable Iraq to exploit gas for the production of electricity, all the while putting an end to dependence on Iranian products and goods,” the source added.

While the US dollar is still used for trade between Iraq and Iran, all transfers are made outside the Iraqi banking sector through foreign brokers or banks in Syria and Lebanon. The dollar is also being smuggled through primitive ways in southern governorates. The vast majority of trade between the two countries is comprised of Iranian exports to Iraq, so Tehran would likely prefer euro or rial-based transactions.

Fadel al-Hamdani, head of the Iraqi-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, told Al-Monitor, “Trade between Iraq and Iran is still ongoing and has not been affected by the US sanctions imposed on Tehran given the ongoing negotiations between Iraq and the United States.”

He added, “Financial transactions are ongoing as per the normal procedures, and it is traders who are behind the changes that may have affected such transactions. If the Iraqi government makes any decisions related to trade with Iran, then the Iraqi private sector will abide by such official decisions.”

Al-Monitor has repeatedly tried to get the Central Bank of Iraq to comment on the use of the dinar and the rial in trade between Iraq and Iran, but to no avail.

However, a high-ranking Iraqi source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The Central Bank is committed not to sell the dollar to Iran and rejects any Iranian attempt to do so.”

The source noted, “The Central Bank also refused any cooperation with Iran aimed at converting the Iranian rial to the US dollar,” stressing that the Central Bank of Iraq even refused to sell the dollar to Iraqis wishing to visit Iran in order to dodge any sanctions that could hit the banking sector and financial sanctions.

Following the latest amendment to the draft budget of 2019, which is being discussed by the Iraqi parliament, the Iraqi government reduced allocations for the import of electricity from 424.6 billion dinars (roughly $357 million) to 70 billion dinars (roughly $59 million).

This means that Iraq will no longer buy electricity from Tehran, and this may spark popular protests similar to the ones that erupted in several provinces after Iran cut off its electricity supplies to Iraq last summer.

“Using the dinar in trade with Iran will lead to an increase in the value of the Iraqi dinar due to higher demand, especially considering that the trade exchange between the two countries reached $8 billion in the past eight months,” freelance researcher and writer Ahmed Hathal told Al-Monitor.

He said, “Iraq’s foreign reserves will increase and the Central Bank will be in a better position to defend the dinar in the event of a high demand of the dollar in the future, especially considering that cash reserves cover the country’s needs for more than nine months, thus exceeding the standards set by international financial institutions.”

Hathal added, “Iraq’s foreign trade with Iran requires another currency, namely the dollar. Hence the US rejection it will face.”

Annual Iranian exports to Iraq account for more than 22% of the total Iraqi imports, which exceed $35 billion from several countries. The private sector pays for these Iranian goods either through dollar transfers made by exchange companies or through means not accredited by the Central Bank, or by simply transferring cash by car. It is also very difficult for Iraq to ban the dollar due to the Iranian hegemony over the authorities.

Al-monitor.com

BGG ~ If The United States is so bad, why is Iran DESPERATE to get their hands on our money (USD)?? Suck it up!!

P.S – Why were the JACK @$$e$ in the previous administration in such a big hurry to give these terrorist thugs the kind of cash as they did? I don’t get it.

Further, If I read this correctly – that was the VERY DEFINITION of TREASON.

Top 5 countries opting to ditch US dollar & the reasons behind their move

The past year was full of events that inevitably split the global geopolitical space into two camps: those who still support using US currency as a universal financial tool, and those who are turning their back on the greenback.
Global tensions caused by economic sanctions and trade conflicts triggered by Washington have forced targeted countries to take a fresh look at alternative payment systems currently dominated by the US dollar.

RT has taken a deeper look into the recent phenomena of de-dollarization, summing up which countries have taken steps towards eliminating their reliance on the greenback, and the reasons behind their decision.

China

The ongoing trade conflict between the United States and China, as well as sanctions against Beijing’s biggest trading partners have forced China to take steps towards relieving the dollar dependence of the world’s second-largest economy.

In Beijing’s signature soft-power style, the government hasn’t made any loud announcements on the issue. However, the People’s Bank of China has been regularly reducing the country’s share of US Treasuries. Still the number-one foreign holder of the US sovereign debt, China has cut its share to the lowest level since May 2017.

Moreover, instead of promptly dumping the greenback, China is trying to internationalize its own currency, the yuan, which was included in the IMF basket alongside the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the euro, and the British pound. Beijing has recently made several steps towards strengthening the yuan, including accumulating gold reserves, launching yuan-priced crude futures, and using the currency in trade with international partners.

As part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, China is planning to introduce swap facilities in participating countries to promote the use of the yuan. Moreover, the country is actively pushing for a free-trade agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will include the countries of Southeast Asia. The trade pact could easily replace the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the proposed multi-national trade deal which was torn up by US President Donald Trump shortly after he took office. RCEP includes 16 country signatories and the potential pact is expected to form a union of nearly 3.4 billion people based on a combined $49.5 trillion economy, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of the world’s GDP.

India

Ranked the world’s sixth-largest economy, India is one of the biggest merchandise importers. It’s not surprising that the country is directly affected by most global geopolitical conflicts and is significantly impacted by sanctions applied to its trading partners.

Earlier this year, Delhi switched to ruble payments on supplies of Russian S-400 air-defense systems as a result of US economic penalties introduced against Moscow. The country also had to switch to the rupee in purchases of Iranian crude after Washington re-instituted sanctions against Tehran. In December, India and the United Arab Emirates sealed a currency-swap agreement to boost trade and investment without the involvement of a third currency.

Taking into account that India is the third-largest country by purchasing power parity, steps of this kind could considerably diminish the role of the greenback in global trading.

Turkey

Earlier this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to end the US dollar monopoly via a new policy that is aimed at non-dollar trading with the country’s international partners. Later, Turkey’s leader announced that Ankara is preparing to conduct trade through national currencies with China, Russia and Ukraine. Turkey also discussed a possible replacement of the US dollar with national currencies in trade transactions with Iran.

The move was prompted by political and economic reasons. Relations between Ankara and Washington have been deteriorating since the failed military coup in the country to oust President Erdogan in 2016. It’s been reported that Erdogan suspects US involvement in the uprising and accuses Washington of harboring exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for masterminding the coup.

The Turkish economy sank after Washington introduced economic sanctions over the arrest of US evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson on terrorism charges in relation to the uprising.

Erdogan has repeatedly slammed Washington for unleashing a global trade war, sanctioning Turkey and trying to isolate Iran. The NATO member’s decision to buy Russian S-400 missile systems added fuel to the fire.

Moreover, Turkey is trying to ditch the dollar in an attempt to support its national currency. The lira has lost nearly half of its value against the greenback over the past year. The currency plunge was exacerbated by soaring inflation and increasing prices for goods and services.

Iran

A triumphant return of Iran to the global trading arena did not last long. Shortly after winning the US presidential election, Donald Trump opted to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal signed between Tehran and a group of nations, including the UK, US, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the EU.

The oil-rich nation has once again become a target for severe sanctions resumed by Washington, which has also threatened to introduce penalties against any countries that would violate the embargo. The punitive measures banned business deals with the Islamic Republic and cracked down on the country’s oil industry.

Sanctions have forced Tehran to look for alternatives to the US dollar as payment for its oil exports. Iran clinched a deal for oil settlements with India using the Indian rupee. It also negotiated a barter deal with neighboring Iraq. The partners are also planning to use the Iraqi dinar for mutual transactions to reduce reliance on the US dollar amid banking problems connected to US sanctions.

Russia

President Vladimir Putin said the US is “making a colossal strategic mistake” by “undermining confidence in the dollar.” Putin has never called for restricting dollar transactions or banning the use of US currency. However, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier this year that the country had to dump its holdings of US Treasuries in favor of more secure assets, such as the ruble, the euro, and precious metals.

The country has already taken several steps towards de-dollarizing the economy due to the constantly growing burden of sanctions that have been introduced since 2014 over a number of issues. Russia has developed a national payment system as an alternative to SWIFT, Visa and Mastercard after the US threatened tougher new sanctions that would target Russia’s financial system.

So far, Moscow has managed to partially phase out the greenback from its exports, signing currency-swap agreements with a number of countries including China, India and Iran. Russia has recently proposed using the euro instead of the US dollar in trade with the European Union.

Once a top-10 holder of US sovereign debt, Russia has all but eliminated its holdings of US Treasuries. Moscow has used the money to boost the nation’s foreign reserves and to build up its gold stockpile to stabilize the ruble.

Rt.com

Iraq hints at bigger role in Syria after U.S. withdrawal

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s prime minister said on Sunday that top security officials from Baghdad had met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, and hinted at a bigger Iraqi role fighting Islamic State militants as U.S. troops withdraw from Syria.

“This issue has a lot of complications,” Adel Abdul Mahdi told reporters, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement this month that he will withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq’s neighbor.

“If any negative development takes place in Syria it will affect us. We have a 600 km (400 mile) border with Syria and Daesh (Islamic State) is there,” Abdul Mahdi said.

The premier said the Iraqi delegation had visited Damascus to “gain the initiative, not just deal with the consequences” of any future Islamic State (IS) activity emboldened by the U.S. withdrawal. Iraqi news websites said the visit took place on Saturday.

Abdul Mahdi said Iraq sought to move beyond its current arrangement with Syria – under which it launches air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syrian territory – but did not got into more details.

“There are groups operating in Syria, and Iraq is the best way to deal with this,” he said, responding to a question about the possibility of increased involvement of Iraqi forces in Syria.

Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim paramilitary groups backed by Iran already operate inside Syrian territory against the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State.

Abdul Mahdi has previously said that about 2,000 Islamic State fighters are operating near the border in Syria and trying to cross into Iraq.

Islamic State was militarily defeated in Iraq in 2017, but has continued to launch guerilla-style attacks on security forces in the north of the country.

Reuters.com

Happy New Year!! Stay safe everyone.

The fuss about Trump visit fabricated .. The procedure was normal and legal for 3 reasons

Baghdad today – Former Iraqi MP KDP leader Majid Shankali said Saturday (December 29, 2018) that the uproar over US President Donald Trump’s visit to Iraq was “highly fabricated.

Shankali said in a press statement that “the visit is normal for more than one reason. First, it was the knowledge of the Iraqi government, as the government said, as well as the White House. The second is that visits of senior US officials are stipulated in the strategic agreement signed between Baghdad and Washington. In Germany the same way he visited the base (eye of the lion) without talking about the violation of Germany’s sovereignty. ”

Shankali added that “what is happening is really strange, as those who denounce are counted on the Iranian camp, and the silence is calculated on the American camp, and this in itself is a clear expression of the absence of an Iraqi national decision away from foreign agendas.”

On Wednesday evening, the US president visited the military base of Ain al-Assad in western Iraq on a surprise visit to congratulate US troops there on Christmas.

The three-hour visit provoked angry reactions among the forces in the popular crowd and Iraqi political forces, who saw it as an excess of sovereignty and diplomatic norms and called for “the expulsion of US forces.”

At the same time, the Information Office of the Prime Minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said that “the US authorities have informed the Iraqi authorities of Trump’s desire to conduct the visit,” noting that “divergent views on the meeting” prevented the contract between Trump and Abdul-Mahd

Baghdadtoday.news

Iraq and Jordan agree to settle outstanding financial files dating back to Saddam Hussein era

(Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and his Jordanian counterpart Omar al-Razzaz have agreed to settle outstanding financial files between the two countries dating back to Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Al-Razzaz said in a joint press conference with Abdul Mahdi in Baghdad that a clear mechanism was agreed upon to deal with the outstanding financial files that belong to the pre-war period in Iraq and the 1990s and before.

The Iraqi government had announced earlier in the day in a press statement on the agreement between Baghdad and Amman in activating a number of economic sectors between the two sides, including the formation of technical technical financial committee between the two sides to develop solutions to the outstanding financial files between the two countries.

Keywords: Faceiraq.net

The new inter-partisan government and independence

The first thing that attracts attention is the degree of building formal and informal institutions, the mechanism of the rotation of power, the degree of competition and political participation, as well as the entrenchment of democratic action, which is often the responsibility of political parties and community organizations to educate the public and its political work by expressing Opinion and interaction with the event and the election of the best.

Here political parties emerge through the roles they interact in either by convincing the public of their programs or relying on historical facts by going to power in advance and thus evoking some of their achievements. Sometimes the parties are formed as a result of the idea of ​​a person or that party adopts the name or approach of that person who has It is characterized by a certain charisma that enables this party to win a huge public opinion and perhaps the departure of this inspiring party may be overthrown or fragmented. Political parties operate on the basis of competition among themselves and win the confidence of voters and resort to form a government, whether they are from one party or coalition.

The emergence of the political parties in Iraq after 2003 was a phenomenon inherent in completing the democratic transition process, despite the obstacles such as excessive pluralism and the absence of implementation of the parties’ law. However, the experience of successive governments has produced some slow progress in the democratization process to take on a gradual nature.

And with the formation of the new Iraqi government headed by Mr. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, which differed from its predecessors from several aspects in the forefront of which led to the exit of the prime minister from the crucible of the Dawa Party, and the choice of a person enjoys some kind of independence for the prime minister as well as a near consensus by the political blocs and Sunni Shiite consensus Kurdish, which has not happened before.

The central question is whether the government is independent or whether it was formed by parties. And what are the dimensions of the existence of quotas between their formations?

It is common in most democratic countries that the government stems from the partisan and political rivalry and the results of the election taken in the formation of the government, whether unilateral or coalition. On the other hand, the subject of independence is relative. The majority, if not the majority, Is not affected by a particular party, but it is affected by a person or a party or a certain entity, and this does not form on it and the meaning of that even if the government of Abdul-Mahdi, some of the party minister this is normal, under a parliamentary system based on the basis of multi-party and political, and right here the choice of political technocrats As a result of Several reasons, including that the independent minister may be more vulnerable than any other political blackmail or withdraw confidence or frequent summons and interrogation in order to pass the pressures of those political blocs, in addition to the loss of parliamentary support or legislative back to his supporter.

The issue of quotas is a reality that can not be achieved except in the case of changing the electoral system and the adoption of the principle of the largest bloc, which takes on the formation of the government as a whole, and difficult as a result of the demographic reality, which necessitates the drawing of the electoral map in varying proportions and different forces, The vote on the President of the Republic by a two-thirds majority and give the government confidence in half plus one, meaning the impossibility of getting out of the quota with the opportunity to correct the course, as happened recently from the coalition of several blocks and the selection of political technocrats and limit the sharing or quota only at the top of the pyramid according to you Efficiency and integrity, thus overcoming some of its disadvantages.

Faceiraq.net

The dollar stabilizes for the third day in Baghdad 12-28-2018

The foreign exchange markets in Baghdad, Friday morning, stabilized at the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Iraqi dinar.

The market price in the Baghdad Stock Exchange was 1197.5 dinars per dollar, or 119 thousand and 750 dinars per hundred dollars, the same price on Thursday.

The prices of buying and selling dollars in banking companies were:

The selling price of one dollar 1202.5 dinars, or 120 thousand and 250 dinars per hundred dollars.

The purchase price of the dollar is 1192.5 dinars, or 119 thousand and 250 dinars per hundred dollars.

Prices of foreign, gold, oil , currency, {even the preparation of this news}:

Euro Global Price: 100 EUR = 114.65 USD
GBP Global Price: 100 pounds = 126.70 dollars
Turkish Lira Global Price: $ 100 = 528.17 lira
price of an ounce of gold worldwide = 1280.77 dollar
price Brent crude oil = $ 53.82 The
price of a barrel of US crude oil = $ 45.74

Alforatnews.com