Iraq Economic News and Points To Ponder Tuesday Afternoon 9-15-26
"The Baghdad Dinar Is Disappearing... Close The Borders!" The Final Solution Is To Abolish Iraq's Paper Currency!
2026-09-15 | Baghdad - Perhaps no country in the world has abolished paper currency, but amidst the anxiety surrounding discussions in the local market and among banks—both those sanctioned and those not—within an economy mired in a ceaseless war, an Iraqi expert and academic believes that the chaos plaguing the financial market necessitates the "complete abolition of paper currency" and its conversion into a bank card for every citizen.
This is preferable to other proposals for addressing the escalating liquidity crisis. "Neither removing zeros nor replacing denominations with larger ones (such as a 100,000 dinar note) will work," he argues. He suggests that abolishing paper currency would bring all "buried, stolen, and smuggled funds back" in a documented and verifiable manner.
However, this expert also calls for a measure to be implemented: "closing the borders" so that Baghdad can effectively nullify the value of "stolen, buried, and smuggled dinars" within the country or in neighboring states like Turkey and Iran.
He does not, however, specify a timeframe for closing the borders! While this proposal appears desperate, it reflects the intensity of the debate among Iraqi financial experts regarding how to address the "disappearance of the dinar and liquidity" from the market and the resulting scarcity that hinders salary payments and stifles daily economic activity.
According to expert Safwan Qusay, in a conversation with journalist Mona Sami, which was followed by 964 Network .
Economic expert Safwan Qusay stated, “Our problem is that the Central Bank issued currency worth 106 trillion dinars, 40 trillion of which are within the banking system, while more than 60 trillion dinars remain in the form of cash in the pockets of Iraqis.
This amount does not enter the banking system, so we need to call these funds to find out where they are. Here, opinions vary.”
Some advocate removing zeros as long as a new currency is to be printed.
Some argue that there is no need to remove zeros and print more currency, but rather to move towards using only electronic payment cards. They suggest giving Iraqis a grace period, say until the end of the year, during which they would deposit all their savings into the card.
This would lead to a halt in cash purchases, causing paper currency to lose its legitimacy. People would then be forced to deposit cash into the card, which would have a special code that, if entered into the banks, would be monitored. Any money that is missing would be discarded.
He added: “This should include each category separately; all categories should not be included at once. Such a measure requires closing the borders, because there is a portion of the dinar that some suspect is outside Iraqi borders, since the Iranian currency has been subjected to many shocks, so it is not unlikely that they have saved Iraqi money.
The same applies to the Turks. Therefore, the process begins with closing the borders, recovering the money, and then injecting it back into circulation in a legitimate way through the electronic card. At that point, the legitimacy of money not belonging to the government, especially buried money, will be lost, and this measure will restore the prestige of the Iraqi dinar.”
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Political Forces Continue Consultations, And The Prime Minister Intends To Finalize The Cabinet This Month
Baghdad - One News - 9/15/2026 A source within the coordination framework revealed the reasons for postponing the meeting of the framework's leaders, which was scheduled to be held yesterday, attributing this to Prime Minister Ali al-Zidi's trip to France and Germany, and the continued disagreements regarding the resolution of the vacant ministries.
The source said that the political forces have not yet reached a final agreement on the vacant ministries, which prompted the leaders to agree to postpone the meeting until after the Prime Minister returns from his European tour and reviews the results of the visit.
He added that the forces of the framework will continue during the postponement period the contacts and consultations among themselves with the aim of reaching solutions regarding the file of the remaining ministries.
He pointed out that Al-Zidi informed the political leaders before his departure to France and Germany of the need to resolve the issue of the government cabinet during this month, and to end the controversy and expedite the completion of the formation of the government.