December 23rd 2006

Raising Interest Rates To Strengthen The Iraqi Dinar
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Transfers and distributions will be made so that the new budget will cover all sectors of the Iraqi people to avoid the mistakes that happened in last year's budget, and the confusion that happened in the implementation of investment projects".

After the economic committee meeting under the chairmanship of Vice-President Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Iraqi minister revealed that "new conditions are put to punish the parties who fall behind in the implementation, then withdraw the funds that have not been spent and convert them to the implementation of large projects in the country".

Regarding the amendments to the salaries of governmental employees at the beginning of next year, Azzubaidi announced: "400 million dollars have been allocated to make the necessary adjustments to the salaries of the employees. The increases would range between 50 and 70%, and each employee will get the increase he deserves, starting from the beginning of next January".

Azzubaidi pointed out that 2007budget "will be set at the rate of  50 dollars per barrel of oil with the production of 1.7 million barrels a day". He explained that the Iraqi Central Bank "started raising interest rates from 12 to 16% now", pointing out that there are no immediate plans to continue raising interest rates.

The Dollar Declines Against The Iraqi Dinar. 
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Decline of the dollar against Iraqi dinar after being purchased by the Iraq Central Bank in the auction, which was opened by the Central Bank of Iraq today and attended by seven Iraqi banks.

The Iraqi Central Bank sold today, the amount of six million and 500 thousand dollars and bought one million and 930 thousand dollars.

The statement declared that the sold amount as remittances to abroad was six million and 500 thousand dollars, which reveals the reluctance of local market for the purchase of the dollar and the sufficiency of banks to buy it for the purpose of transfer.

The Bank has adopted a new monetary policy in an attempt to improve the rate of the dinar against the dollar, according to a program prepared by the Ministry of Planning, in conjunction with the Iraqi Central Bank for the purpose of eliminating inflation rates in the local market.

For the first in the Central Bank Auction, last Wednesday, offers to sell the dollar exceeded the purchase orders significantly. A statement by the Bank said that the purchase orders by the four banks participating in the auction stood at 330 thousand dollars in cash for 20 million and 850 thousand dollars in cash yesterday.

Ali Al-Yasiri, a dealer with the Iraq Central Bank, attributed the significant drop in demand for the dollar to the decline of trading in the Iraqi market, because of the depressed commercial market due to the deteriorating security situation and the danger of dealing with large amounts of funds.