Iraq Economic News and Points to Ponder Saturday Evening 1-13-24
Iraq Economic News and Points to Ponder Saturday Evening 1-13-24
Tlm724 Administrator Bondlady’s Corner
Sudanese, The Government Took The Path Of Radical Reforms And Confronting The Waste Of Public Money
The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani, confirmed that the government had launched its program, which includes a vision for the future of a united, strong, independent Iraq, while indicating that it had followed the path of radical reforms and aimed to confront the waste of public money.
The Prime Minister said, while attending the memorial ceremony on the occasion of the anniversary of the martyrdom of Mr. Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, “We are determined to follow the path of reconstruction and reform and raise the standard of living and services for citizens throughout Iraq.”
He added, “The government launched its program, which includes a vision for a strong, unified Iraq’s future.” Independent, stable and prosperous, adding: We followed the path of radical reforms that address long-term needs, and we aimed to confront the waste of public money, and we kept in mind the infrastructure, in the economy, services, and financial and banking infrastructure, to move towards development and create opportunities for current and future generations.
Within A Week... The Iraqi Central Bank’s Sales Exceed One Billion Dollars
Economy News – Baghdad The Central Bank of Iraq's total sales of hard currency in US dollars during the past week recorded more than one billion dollars.
Last week, for the three days in which the auction was opened, the Central Bank sold 1 billion, 90 million, 529,470 dollars, at a daily rate of 218 million, 105 million, and 894 dollars, higher than what it recorded last week, which amounted to 634 million, 373 thousand. And $298.
The highest dollar sales were on Thursday, when sales amounted to 229 million, 063 thousand and 145 dollars, while the lowest sales were on Sunday, when sales amounted to 210 million, 253 thousand and 270 dollars.
As for foreign remittance sales during the past week, they amounted to 998 million, 93 thousand, and 470 dollars, an increase of 90% compared to cash sales, which amounted to 101 million, 690 thousand dollars.
The sales were in the form of cash and transfers abroad to finance foreign trade, while the selling price of documentary credits and international settlements for electronic cards reached 1,305 dinars per dollar, while the selling price of transfers abroad and the cash selling price reached 1,310 dinars per dollar. Views 39 01/13/2024 - https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=39388
The Ministry Of Finance Discusses The Requirements For Implementing The Unified Treasury System
Friday 12, January 2024 21:58 | Economical Number of readings: 720 Baghdad / NINA / Today, Friday, the Minister of Finance, Taif Sami Muhammad, chaired a coordination meeting, at the Ministry’s headquarters, which included the Director General of the Accounting Department, the General Managers of the Rasheed, Al-Rafidain, Industrial, Real Estate, and Agricultural Banks, and the relevant employees therein, to discuss the requirements for implementing the unified treasury system.
The Minister stressed, Bayan Account To the Ministry, it is necessary to prepare a report and have it signed by the Council of Ministers to take the necessary measures to implement the decision and the implicit paragraphs regarding it without waiting for the first paragraph of Recommendations No. 23453, which includes that all banks, represented by the centrally funded spending units, submit the position of zero self-accounts, provided that it is signed by an account committee. The Unified Treasury.
She indicated that the Council of Ministers had been notified of the accounts while adhering to the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Cabinet’s letter without significant obstacles, and the commitment of the relevant accounting and banking department to withdraw the balances after (10) days of each month.
The Minister of Finance added that: “Preparations are being made A timetable for summoning and finding out the departments that are lagging on implementation, the necessity of re-auditing the disbursed amounts again with the statements, and directing the Rafidain and Rasheed Banks to adhere to paragraph one of the recommendations, and prepare an inventory of all accounts that includes the name of the formation and the amounts and deposit them according to the type of account.”
On the other hand, a timetable has been set with the formed subcommittees, mentioning the number of accounts of each bank and mentioning the amounts that are withdrawn from the main account and preparing a table of all self-accounts for more than 5 years in all banks and then submitting it to the Minister to make a recommendation regarding it and deposit it in the main account, and for For less than 3 years, it is necessary to prepare a complete statement of accounts to deposit them in the main account.
The statement explained: “This comes within a series of meetings held to reform the public finance sector through the implementation of the unified treasury account, which represents a qualitative shift in the management of public funds, as the project will allow the possibility of monitoring the movement and safety of funds and implementing the ministerial curriculum prepared by the ministry in order to keep pace with financial and economic progress.” https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?key=1100618
Oil Prices Rose By 1%... And Brent Closed At $78.29 Per Barrel
Saturday 13, January 2024 10:45 | Economical Number of readings: 358 Baghdad / NINA / Oil prices rose by 1%, yesterday, Friday, when settling with an increasing number of oil tankers diverting from the Red Sea after air and sea strikes launched by the United States and Britain on targets of the Houthi group in Yemen following the Houthis launching attacks on maritime shipping traffic.
Brent crude futures rose 88 cents, or 1.1%, to $78.29 per barrel upon settlement. The highest level during the session exceeded three dollars, with the barrel recording more than $80, the highest level this year.
US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 66 cents, or 0.9%, to $72.68, reversing gains it had achieved after touching the highest level in 2024 at $75.25.
Analysts and experts in the oil sector pointed out that despite expectations that diversion of ships would raise the cost of shipping and increase the time taken to transport oil, supplies have not yet been affected, which has wiped out some of the previous gains achieved by prices.
On a weekly basis, Brent fell 0.5%, while West Texas Intermediate fell 1.1%, with prices recording their first weekly losses this year.
The oil tanker companies Stena Bulk, Hafnia and Torm said that they had all decided to stop all ships heading to the Red Sea.
But Osama Rabie, head of the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority, said that traffic in the canal is proceeding as usual in both directions, and that there is no truth to what was reported about the cessation of navigation due to developments in the Red Sea. https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?key=1100671
Decrease In Iraqi Oil Sales During 2023
Energy Iraqi oil sales declined in 2023, as an increase in federal government crude oil exports did not fully offset the loss of northern pipeline exports through Turkey.
National exports averaged 3.466 million bpd in 2023, down from 3.710 million bpd in 2022. But federal government exports rose to an average of 3.376 million bpd in 2023 compared to 3.331 million bpd in 2022.
The Oil Ministry ended the year on a high, with oil sales averaging 3.486 million barrels per day in December, the highest monthly average for federal exports in four years. With an average selling price of $77.63 per barrel, monthly oil revenues were $8.316 billion, down slightly from November when global prices were higher.
Despite the increase in the volume of federal exports, Baghdad's annual oil revenues declined in 2023 due to the decline in global prices. Iraq earned $115.657 billion in 2022, with an average selling price of $95.67 per barrel. In 2023, total oil revenues reached $97.532 billion at an average selling price of $79.02 per barrel.
Iraq depends on oil for more than 95 percent of its revenues, and the federal budget law that covers the years from 2023 to 2025 is based on the assumption of $90 billion in annual oil revenues, although this number still leaves a large deficit, as $150 billion Dollars of annual spending are theoretically permissible.
Baghdad's strong export numbers contrast sharply with a year of crisis in the Kurdistan region's oil sector. After exports averaged 367,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2023, and generated revenues of about $2.2 billion, the Kurdistan Regional Government did not sell any oil on international markets for the remainder of the year after suspending oil flows through the northern pipeline in late March to Turkey If the KRG had been able to maintain its first-quarter export volumes during the year, it would have received nearly $6.7 billion in additional oil revenues, the Iraq Oil Report estimated based on a comparison of the KRG's historical discounts with crude oil. Brent standard. the prices.
Although Ankara informed Baghdad on October 2 that the Iraq-Turkey pipeline was back in service, exports can only resume if Baghdad, Erbil and international oil companies operating in Kurdistan can reach an agreement in which the KRG guarantees budget support. International oil companies guarantee payments, and in the absence of an outlet to export their crude oil, the companies sell in the local market at prices lower than international prices.
It is possible that Iraqi export levels will decline further in the new year as Iraq moves to comply with a lower OPEC Plus quota, which will come into effect in January of this year, and Iraq’s quota will decrease from 4.220 million barrels per day to 3.997 million barrels per day, as of next March.
Quotas appear to be one of the factors that reduce Baghdad's urgency to solve the problems that prevent the north's exports from working.
Iraq exports a small amount of crude oil via tanker trucks to Jordan, averaging 10,400 bpd in 2023 compared to 6,700 bpd in 2022, when shipments were halted for three months while the two sides negotiated a new sales contract. Iraq supplies Jordan with crude oil at a preferential price that averages $66.41 per barrel in 2023 compared to $83.69 per barrel the previous year.
The Iraqi Oil Marketing Company, SOMO, began offering Qayyarah heavy crude oil on the spot market in June 2023 through the Khor Al-Zubair port. Since June, exports have averaged 23 thousand barrels per day. But the ministry did not report any loadings of Qayyarah crude oil tankers in December.
Even if Iraq were not bound by its OPEC+ obligations, it is not clear that the country could export more. Export facilities in the Gulf of Basra are operating near maximum capacity; They were never able to sustain more than 3.54 million barrels per day during a three-month period.
Below are the Iraqi Federal Government's average daily crude oil exports and total revenues, by month, as reported by the Ministry of Oil since 2011.
*These figures do not include oil sold independently by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
2023
Average daily total for 2023: 3.376 million barrels per day
Total revenues for 2023: $97.532 billion
December 2023: 3.486 million barrels per day - $8.316 billion
November 2023: 3.433 million barrels per day - $8.482 billion
October 2023: 3.534 million barrels per day - $9.594 billion
September 2023: 3.438 million barrels per day - $9.422 billion
August 2023: 3.423 million barrels per day - $8.998 billion
July 2023: 3.444 million barrels per day - $8.294 billion
June 2023: 3.335 million barrels per day - $7.115 billion
May 2023: 3.305 million barrels per day - $7.325 billion
April 2023: 3.288 million barrels per day - $7.669 billion
March 2023: 3.255 million barrels per day - $7.506 billion
February 2023: 3.18 4 million barrels per day - $7.081 billion
January 2023: 3.266 million barrels per day - $7.664 billion
2022
Average daily total for 2022: 3.311 million barrels per day
Total revenues for 2022: $115.657 billion
December 2022: 3.332 million barrels per day - $7.709 billion
November 2022: 3.329 million barrels per day - $8.231 billion
October 2022: 3.382 million barrels per day - $9.258 billion
September 2022: 3.292 million barrels per day - $8.845 billion
August 2022: 3.286 million barrels per day - $9.784 billion
July 2022: 3.303 million barrels per day - $10.608 billion
June 2022: 3.373 million barrels per day - $11.355 billion
May 2022: 3.300 million barrels per day - $11.477 billion
April 2022: 3.380 million barrels per day - $10.609 billion
March 2022: 3.245 million barrels per day - $10.913 billion
February 2022: 3. 314 million barrels per day - $8.544 billion
January 2022: 3.203 million barrels per day - $8.323 billion
Views 34 01/13/2024 - https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=39392
Dollar Prices Decrease Slightly In Baghdad And Erbil
Economy | 01/13/2024 Mawazine News - Baghdad..Dollar prices fell, on Saturday, in the markets of Baghdad and Erbil. A source told Mawazine News that dollar prices fell with the opening of the Al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya stock exchanges to record 153,000 Iraqi dinars against 100 dollars, while yesterday, Tuesday, prices were 153,900 dinars against 100 dollars.
He pointed out that the selling prices in the exchange shops in the local markets in Baghdad decreased, as the selling price reached 153,250 Iraqi dinars, while the purchasing price reached 152,750 dinars for every 100 dollars.
As for Erbil, a decrease was also recorded in banking shops, and the selling price reached 153,000 dinars against the dollar, and the purchase price reached 1,531,000 dinars against 100 dollars.
https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=240303
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Provoking Points To Ponder on Adversity:
Times of stress and difficulty are seasons of opportunity when the seeds of progress are sown.- Thomas F. Woodlock
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. - Confucius
As there is no worldly gain without some loss, so there is no worldly loss without some gain.... Set the allowance against the loss, and thou shalt find no loss great. - Francis Quarles
Never complain about your troubles; they are responsible for more than half of your income. - Robert R. Updegraff
http://famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/adversity_quotes.html
Famous Quotes and Authors, Famous Quotations for all Occasions-