KTFA Members "News and Views" Monday Afternoon 3-16-2021

KTFA:

Coco:  This is the time frame Kuwait reinstated their currency.  I've been waiting for this time frame since last summer.  Perfect timing for a long holiday and the people off from work.

Pattycakes77:  I agree. My fingers are crossed for this weekend.

Samson:  Kurdistan announces the suspension of the official working hours for 5 days on the occasion of the Nowruz holidays

03/16/2021 16:12:32

The Kurdistan Regional Government issued, on Tuesday, a decision to suspend official working hours in government departments and institutions for a period of five days on the occasion of Nowruz holidays.

  Government spokesman Gutiar Adel said in a statement that it had been decided to suspend work hours on the occasion of Nowruz holidays, from the 21st to the 25th of this March. He explained, that {Sunday, Monday and Tuesday} of next week is an official holiday on the occasion of Nowruz holidays, and that {Wednesday and Thursday} of the same week are also an official holiday in government institutions.

The regional government spokesman called on citizens to adhere to the health instructions for preventing Corona virus during Nowruz holidays.   LINK

Samson:  The Central Bank reveals the size of Iraq's foreign currency reserves

16th March, 2021
The Central Bank of Iraq revealed, on Tuesday, that its total foreign currency reserves amount to approximately 56 billion dollars, stressing that it maintains the stability of exchange rates in the markets through the use of its various monetary tools.
 
An official source at the Central Bank said in an interview with the official newspaper, that "foreign reserves are still within the limits of sufficiency," noting that "the total foreign reserves decreased by about 20% during the year 2020." The source pointed out that "gold holdings are approximately $5,703 million, and there are no plans to increase investment in gold in light of the continuing impact of the crisis," explaining that "the Chinese yuan currency is one of the currencies invested in foreign reserves."

The source pointed out, "The Central Bank of Iraq maintains the stability of exchange rates in the markets by exploiting its various monetary tools, the most important of which is the foreign currency sale window that aims to finance imports of goods and services, in accordance with the provisions of the Iraqi Central Bank Law No. 56 of 2004 in Article 28 / b (Simple, unconditional buying and selling of foreign currency), in a manner that maintains acceptable rates of inflation.

The source attributed the reason for the decline in the price of the dollar in the markets, especially last month, from the price specified in the bank, by saying that “the exchange rate of the US dollar in the local markets retreated from the approved official selling price after the price change by the bank at the end of December The year 2020 is due to the fact that the change in the exchange rate initially formed a shock to the local market, which required an adjustment period to make the settlements that took place between each of the merchants (wholesale, retail, and singular) and the settlements of wholesalers with banks, where imports decreased to severe levels, and consequently. Reduced demand for foreign currency."   LINK

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Samson:  Report: Iraq, the country with floating oil wells, is suffering from poverty and unemployment

15th March, 2021

Economically, Iraq had the opportunity to be one of the richest countries in the world, and for its citizens to become the highest-earning countries in the region, and the most fortunate to obtain all the necessary services such as bread, food, electricity, water, fuel and public transportation for free or at least at a price. Suitable for their entry.

In practice, however, that oil-rich country, which is floating on wells in the north, south and west, suffers from extreme poverty, worsening unemployment, the spread of slums and the deterioration of infrastructure, and that millions of families find it difficult to obtain one meal a day. 

According to a report by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper. Also, 10% of Iraqis do not have enough food for them, according to figures from the United Nations World Food Program, and that the devaluation of the dinar against the dollar led to a 14% increase in the food basket, which led to millions of people being pushed from the middle class to the poor.

Indeed, the official figures issued by the Ministry of Planning acknowledge the increase in the number of citizens who fall under the heading of extreme poverty to 11.5 million Iraqis, as the Corona pandemic and the financial crisis in the country since the fall in oil prices and the outbreak of the epidemic caused more than 1.5 million citizens to enter below the poverty line, to be added. To the previous number of 10 million citizens.

Indeed, the Iraqi Human Rights Commission warned, today, Monday, that there are risks threatening food security in the country. Because of the measures taken by the government during the recent period, including reducing the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar. The matter did not stop at this deteriorating living condition for the citizen, rather it came to the point where millions of poor, needy and people with limited incomes demand the government to return to the monthly ration system, which was in place during Saddam Hussein’s days and even before the US invasion of the country in 2003, due to the exorbitant high prices, especially for the prices of materials.

The government adopts a policy of reducing commodity subsidies, as well as the partial floatation of the local currency by reducing the value of the dinar starting from last February, which led to jumps in the prices of all imported goods.

Economically again, Iraq is currently the fifth largest oil producer and exporter in the world, and is also classified as the second largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, with an average production of 4.6 million barrels per day in normal conditions, and it depends on oil revenues to finance what it reaches 95% of the state's expenditures, which makes both the citizen and the economy vulnerable to any risks or fluctuations in global oil prices.

 In April 2019, the International Energy Agency announced that Iraq is on track to produce nearly six million barrels of crude oil per day by 2030, which will make it the third largest exporter of oil in the world. Iraq also has a stockpile of 132 trillion cubic feet of gas, of which 700 billion cubic feet have been burned, as a result of the weak ability to exploit it.

According to the figures of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) issued in 2010, Iraq ranks third in the world in stable recoverable oil reserves, with its oil reserves reaching 143.1 billion barrels, it is preceded by Saudi Arabia with quantities of 264.59 billion barrels, Venezuela 211.17 billion barrels, just as Iraq precedes Iran. In the reserve, which has about 137 billion barrels.

Despite all these huge quantities of energy sources, whether oil or natural gas, Iraq imports about 30% of its energy needs, especially electricity and gas, from Iran, and it does not achieve self-sufficiency even at the level of electric power generation, and negotiations are currently underway with Turkey. To import electricity from them. Iraq also imports about 60% of its food needs, despite its agricultural and water wealth.

In contrast to that oil and agricultural glut that qualifies any government to provide all the welfare requirements and services for its citizens, we find that recent figures indicate that poverty rates in Iraq have reached 31.7%, a rate that exceeds those in other Arab countries that do not possess even a quarter of Iraq's oil wealth.

And others. What brought the Iraqi citizen in that big oil country to the miserable situation that the citizens of poor countries suffer from, whose governments do not possess oil, natural, or even agricultural wealth?

It is the rampant corruption in all the veins of the Iraqi state, which prompted the government to borrow from home and abroad to pay salaries and spend on support items, and perhaps spend on the corrupt themselves.   LINK

Samson:  Politics ... and their stance on the exchange rate of the dollar

17:19 - 16/03/2021 - Books / Fadel Hussein Al-Khafaji

The Iraqi society is known to be a consumer society, and it is the milk cow for the trader and the middleman .. And these people are not satisfied with imposing the prices that suit them, but some of them also master the methods of fraud, so that their profits reach 100%, and this is the one who possesses it at times? Who stands in the way of manipulating his daily power? 

And we all know that there are health conditions (the Corona pandemic) that passes through Iraq and all countries of the world, and this pandemic has caused the government to be forced to repeatedly ban for several days a week, which makes many of the workers who live in their daily strength on the daily work wages.

This made many of the Iraqi people who depend on their daily livelihoods suffering from hardship, and the government did not think to deal with this situation .. which caused negative social consequences, including cases of suicide and divorce ..

The people in Iraq are divided into two parts, the same as most societies: the poor and the rich, and between them the middle class that resembles the baromer, which can, according to the circumstances, decide whether to belong to one of the two approaches: ... and the poor in Iraq are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer, especially in the wave of high prices ... and for the poor who do not have a stable resource or a depression in their profession, unless he knocks on his head so that the government will listen to his voice ..

In the media every day and during this period close to the elections, we hear voices of (the representatives or representatives of the people) that they object to raising the price of the US dollar against the Iraqi dinar ..

And in the dark rooms .. they agree to raise the price of the dollar .. even if they really object They did not force the Minister of Finance to return to the old price, and they have the compelling argument, which is the return of the oil price to what was before the Corona pandemic ... and they embarrass the government to return the price of the Iraqi dinar to its previous state in the budget for the current year 2021. 

The problem is that they perceive that the Iraqi people do not know their misdeeds and these maneuvers, which are in order to prepare for the next elections scheduled to take place in October 2021 ..   LINK

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Samson:  The Lebanese pound continues to collapse

16th March, 2021

The Lebanese pound recorded a new decline in the parallel (black) market transactions today, Tuesday, to an average of 14.5 thousand pounds per one dollar

Lebanese media outlets and websites monitoring exchange rate developments reported today, Tuesday, that the sale of the dollar to consumers in early transactions on the black market ranged between 14.3 and 14.5 thousand pounds, a new low that had not previously been recorded in the local currency

Domestic demand for foreign exchange, especially the dollar, rose within the markets, amid declining customer confidence in the pound, which threatens to accelerate the hypothesis of implementing a full or directed float in exchange rates. The exchange rate on the official market is 1510 liras per dollar. This comes while fears of a further escalation in the pace of popular protests in several cities increased, and the possibility that banks will be unable to provide customers' deposits, after the expiration of a deadline set by the Central Bank to raise bank capital

The relationship between banks operating in Lebanon and depositors is heading to more complexity, following a deadline set by the Central Bank of Lebanon, which expired on February 28, last year, which decided to increase the capital of these banks

In August 2020, the Banque du Liban obligated the banks operating in the market to increase their capital by 20%, and to reconfigure their accounts with correspondent banks by 3%, no later than the end of last February

The capital of banks operating in Lebanon amounts to $ 20 billion, and an increase of 20% means that there is an addition of $ 4 billion, and most banks will face difficulty in fulfilling them   LINK