Iraq Economic News and Points to Ponder Monday Afternoon 2-10-25
Complex Networks And Ways To Smuggle The Dollar From Iraq To Iran .. An American Report Reveals The Details
2025-02-07 |10,063 views Alsumaria News – Economy An American report stated that numbers the huge of the auctions of the Central Bank of Iraq in selling hard currency raises doubts and anxiety about the possibility of smuggling a large part of the currency to Iran. The report stated that
"the sales of the Central Bank of the currency amounted to more than 81 billion dollars during 2024, which is a significant increase from the year 2023, as sales were approximately $41 billion."
n Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed a presidential note to take immediate action from federal agencies to prevent Iran from using the Iraqi financial system.
"The country is facing a difficult test, as Baghdad wants to meet the imposition of US sanctions, and
at a time it seeks to maintain the stability of the country's economy and not enter into new crises," said Iraqi economic experts.
According to the report,
"Iran is using the financial system in Iraq in order to circumvent international sanctions, and to find an important outlet to obtain the hard currency and smuggle it to Tehran."
The professor of international economic relations, Abd al-Rahman al-Mashhadani, stressed that "Iran's exploitation of the Iraqi financial system is a problem that we have warned about for years," noting that
"there" a set of methods that Iran follows in Iraq, which appears clearly in the balance of trade that tends to benefit exports Tehran, where Baghdad with a value of less than one billion dollars for this neighboring country.
Republican MP, Joe Wilson, revealed that Trump issued a directive in which he called the Treasury and other American agencies to take immediate steps to ensure that the Iraqi financial system is not used by Iran to evade or overcome sanctions.
He also directed not to use the Gulf states as re-charging points in order to evade sanctions.
Wilson said in a post on the X platform, which attached it to a picture of the decision that Trump signed, that these steps should ensure Iran financial system does not use the Iraqi to evade the sanctions, or bypass them, and the failure of the Gulf states as re-recharge points in favor of Tehran.
While the academic and professor of economics, Nabil Al -Marsoumi, said that "Iran is officially issued by about $12 billion for Iraq, and these are all revenues achieved in the dollar in favor of Tehran," noting that "these numbers only reflect what is happening on the level of trade, but there are many amounts that are smuggled By complex networks.”
Al-Marsoumi agrees, "the existence of a group of importers, banks and money transfer offices to form networks that depend on fabricated documents, whether in quantities or value, in order to transfer billions of dollars annually", stressing "the presence of two types of smuggling to the dollar in Iraq,
one to introduce the hard currency to the Iraqi market, and the
second to return His smuggling to Iran."
In August 2023, the Iraqi National Security Agency announced in a statement,
"The overthrow of the most prominent currency smuggling networks, which "included a group of suspicious financial and banking activities, has admitted that fake companies have practiced commercial businesses as a cover for currency smuggling out of the country."
needs Iran currency the dollar to stabilize its deteriorating economy, which has been severely affected by US sanctions, while the troubled Iranian currency has lost much of its value.
"The mechanisms followed by Tehran in Iraq target official institutions such as the Central Bank, or private banks, some of which are considered facades of political parties," according to a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, MP Jamal Koger.
To ensure commitment to American standards regarding money laundering and sanctions on Iran, more than 20 Iraqi banks were prevented from carrying out transfers in dollars, but they are still working in Iraq using the dinar.
"Among the most prominent ways that Iran follows with the exploitation of the commercial sector, which provides Tehran, as goods are imported that are amplified, for example, the deal may be worth a million dollars, to become on paper worth four million dollars," noting that "the method is The
second that began to spread to the establishment of Iranian factories inside Iraq, and
their products are sold on the market, and revenues are transferred to Iran through specialized networks.
Even some cash amounts are sent directly by individuals crossing the border to Iran, especially with the boundary ports in the boundaries to track or prevent the smuggling of the currency.
private sector And Professor of International Economic Relations, Abdul Rahman Al-Mashhadani, stated that
"the Iraqi, which imports billions from Iran, usually depends on collecting the dollar from the parallel market, through specific exchange networks or even from individuals directly," stressing that
"these financial transactions with Iran usually does not take place through the central bank, especially after the electronic platform was imposed in a previous period.
Al-Mashhadani pointed out, "The existence of information confirming that there is a fake Iraqi currency that is printed in Iran, and is pumped into the Iraqi market to obtain the dollar."
He explained that "there are armed factions in Iraq, some of which were founded by investment companies, which transferred billions of dollars directly to Iran."
"Despite talking about the existence of Iranian-Iranian exchanges in which the Iranian Toman is used, the bulk of the deals are made in the American dollar," according to Al-Mashhadani. Al-Mashhadani asked,
"How do goods bought about $25 million per day from Iran?"
Among the means also in which Tehran is exploited by Baghdad, according to Al-Mashhadani,
"the operations of Iranian oils or the sale of Iranian oil as an Iraqi oil, as exchanges are carried out in the territorial waters in a step to circumvent international sanctions."
Al-Mashhadani identified the mechanism that "certificates of origin and export of this oil are fabricated as from Iraq, and it is re-exported to countries in East Asia, which is reselling."
On Thursday, the United States announced the imposition of financial sanctions, the first since President Donald Trump, targeting an "international network" accused of transporting Iranian oil to China to finance Tehran's military activities.
The US Treasury said in a statement that
"the sanctions target an international network that facilitates the transportation of millions of Iranian crude oil barrels, by hundreds of millions of dollars, to China," the US Treasury said in a statement.
In early 2023, the Central Iraq announced the adoption of an electronic platform in order to monitor the movement of the dollar sale and money laundering operations.
The academic and professor of economics, Al-Marsoumi said that "the mechanisms that were developed during the last period to curb the currency smuggling to and from Iraq, did not succeed, especially the electronic platform."
He added that "in some Iraqi markets, the Iranian transactions are made, but these sums are replaced again in the Iraqi interior in dollars."
At the beginning of this year, the Central Bank of Iraq suspended the work of the electronic platform mechanisms related to the sale of the dollar, while indicating the continuation of the mechanism of granting the dollar to travelers at airports.
Al-Marsoumi stated that "the platform did not perform the purpose required of it, as the sales of the central bank increased from the dollar during the period that followed the opening of the platform, simply the importers were providing fabricated bills and even if they followed them in a fundamental way that cannot be detected."
Koger agrees that "the electronic money transfer platform was unable to stop smuggling difficult currencies from Iraq to Iran, and networks are active in transferring the cash dollar in the parallel markets."
Al-Mashhadani fears that "Baghdad affects the effects of international sanctions on Iran, as the recent decisions of Washington include stopping the import of Iranian gas in favor of Iraq."
He said that "the Iraqi economy may be shocked by these decisions, especially since Iraq depends on Iranian gas to generate electricity, and what may happen is a crisis in the event that the alternative to Iranian gas is not found."
The electricity file is sensitive in Iraq, as its 43 million residents suffer on a daily basis of electricity that may reach 10 hours. The matter is worse, the temperatures rise up to fifty during the summer.
In the event that the sanctions are expanded to include the banking system, it will lead to more economic pain, especially since 28 banks are subject to sanctions from 62 banks in Iraq.
"Iraq will not be able to break its economic association with Iran, especially with the great dependence on gas imports to generate electric energy to the Iraqi provinces."
He said, "The Iraqi government must talk to the American authorities, in order to continue to take exceptions to ensure the continued flow of gas."
has long granted The United States exemptions from applying sanctions by paying money to Iran in exchange for supplies of electricity, that Tehran does not use these funds except in "transactions that are not subject to sanctions" such as buying humanitarian goods, including food and agricultural products.
On Wednesday, Trump canceled the exemption granted to Iraq to import electricity and gas from Iran, while he also decided to prevent Tehran from "exploiting the funds of Baghdad."
https://www.alsumaria.tv/news/economy/515580/شبكات-معقدة-وطرق-تهريب-الدولار-من-العراق-لإيران-تقرير-امريكي-يكشف-التف
Prime Minister's Advisor Presents Model To Enhance Liberalization Of Monetary Bloc
Economy 02-8-2025, Baghdad - WAA - Nassar Al-Hajj The Prime Minister's Financial Advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, presented a proposal today, Saturday, that contributes to mobilizing idle funds for development projects.
Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency (INA):
"The presence of a large monetary bloc outside the banking system, which exceeds 85% of the total monetary issuance, constitutes a phenomenon with repercussions on the national economy." He explained that "this is a phenomenon
deeply inherited in the country's economic history, and is
linked to the citizen's confidence in the banking systems and
in long years of instability, which
created a state of tendency towards widespread hoarding, as
this behavior involves the demand for cash in liquid form outside banks accompanied by a lack of confidence in this monetary behavior."
He added, "This leads to two main problems, the first is the presence of idle money that does not contribute to the completion of the income cycle, which affects the balance between savings and investment, and thus limits the potential for economic growth.
The second problem is the spread of credit operations outside the banking system, where this money is lent at high interest rates of up to five times the official bank interest rates, which increases the cost of economic financing and leads to significant financial risks."
Saleh presented "a financing model that combines equity (shares) and credit rights (bonds), so that the
lender is treated as a shareholder, with a minimum guarantee of losses through insurance companies." He pointed out that "this model, which is common in global financial markets,
can contribute to mobilizing idle money for development projects,
creating a new investment culture that supports the national economy."
https://www.ina.iq/227648--.html
For current and reliable Iraqi news please visit: https://www.bondladyscorner.com/
