KTFA:

Samson:  The Cabinet Secretariat announces the suspension of official working hours next week

28th July, 2020

The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers announced the suspension of official working hours in government institutions during the coming week on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, in conjunction with the rise in temperatures in countries that exceeded the fifty-degree Celsius mark.

The Secretariat of the Council of Ministers said in a statement that "the permanence of the suspension will be in line with the vacation approved by the Supreme Committee for Health and National Safety {Combating the Corona Virus Pandemic], which starts from next Thursday, July 30 and until August 8, 2020."

The Supreme Committee for Health and National Safety decided to impose a comprehensive curfew on the days of Eid Al-Adha, provided that the ban would be reviewed after the Eid holiday, while obliging citizens to follow all preventive measures.   LINK

Samson:  The suspension of official working hours in Kurdistan 5 days, starting from Friday

29th July, 2020

Today, the Kurdistan Regional Government announced a 5-day official holiday, starting from 7-31-2020, until Tuesday 4-8-2020.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, Gutiar Adel, said in a statement, that the holiday includes all official institutions in the region, as it will resume work next Wednesday.

The statement called on citizens to adhere to preventive measures, during the days of Eid, to confront the Corona pandemic.

Yesterday, Tuesday, the General Secretariat of the Iraqi Council of Ministers announced the suspension of official working hours on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, coinciding with high temperatures.   LINK

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Don961:  An economist talks about what controls the dollar exchange rate in Iraq

Economie 7/20/2020 19:41 441    
Baghdad today - Baghdad

Economist, Humam Al-Shamaa, on Tuesday (28 July 2020), talked about what controls the dollar exchange rate in Iraq and the effect of internal factors on it.

Al-Shamaa said, in an interview with (Baghdad Today), that "the exchange rate of the dollar in local markets has nothing to do with the exchange rate of the dollar in global markets towards other currencies."

He added, "What controls the dollar exchange rate in global markets are expectations, oil prices, gold prices and a relationship with the euro. As for Iraq, the relationship between the dollar and the dinar is controlled by internal factors related to the demand and supply of the dollar."

And Al-Shamaa said, "The decrease leads to higher prices, inflation and more problems for the poor classes, because the devaluation of the dinar means an increase in the value of commodities."

The price of gold reached record levels yesterday, with a new drop in the price of the dollar in the global market at a time when investors rushed to buy it as a safe haven, amid concern about the tension between the United States and China and the rise in the number of cases of Covid-19 again around the world and the lack of progress in Washington on a new package To stimulate the economy.

After months of improvement in stock markets, driven by the trillions of dollars of support from governments and central banks, investors are rethinking the long-term economic implications of the emerging corona virus.

And at a time when the wide easing measures imposed by the Federal Reserve monetary dollar push the dollar against most of the other currencies, gold rises significantly, reaching a record level of $ 1944.71, which is much higher than the previous record level recorded in 2011 and reached $ 1921.18.

The focus is on the next meeting of the Federal Reserve to discuss its policies this week, as some expect that more measures will be imposed to boost the economy (probably negative interest rates), which is expected to increase pressure on the dollar and raise the price of the gold ingot to more than two thousand dollars.

There is also concern that recording worse-than-expected results in US gross domestic product for the second quarter of the year will cause major selling to the dollar, and while the weak dollar has been a major driver of the high price of gold, the matter is also driven by the attractiveness of the metal as a haven in times of turmoil, especially in light of the deterioration The relations between the United States and China day after day.

Gavin Wendt, chief resource analyst at MineLife Consulting, said: “Strong gains cannot be avoided at a time when we are entering a stage similar to the atmosphere that prevailed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis as gold prices rose to record levels as a result of large amounts of Federal Reserve funds being pumped into Financial system, "and the dollar fell again against other currencies, while the euro reached its highest level since September 2018.  LINK

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Samson:  Saudi Arabia loses half of its financial revenues due to the collapse in oil prices

28th July, 2020

Saudi Arabia recorded a fiscal deficit of 109.2 billion riyals ($ 29.12 billion) during the second quarter of this year, with the public treasury affected by the drop in oil prices

According to the Reuters news agency, oil revenues for the world's largest oil exporter fell by 45% year-on-year in the second quarter, recording $ 25.5 billion

The report of the Ministry of Finance on the quarterly performance of the budget showed that the country's total revenue fell by 49% to about $ 36 billion. Total expenditures also decreased by 17% year on year to about $ 65 billion

And Saudi Arabia revealed, last week, plans to finance the budget deficit, and the Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, said on Wednesday that the kingdom is considering selling assets in sectors that the country was not considering privatizing earlier

He added that privatization operations will likely bring in more than fifty billion riyals ($ 13.3 billion) in the next four or five years, explaining that the most important target sectors are education, health care and water

He continued, "The kingdom is likely to have to borrow about 100 billion riyals more than was planned for this year." Saudi Arabia also plans to take advantage of the global debt market at least again in 2020 after selling $ 12 billion of international bonds so far

Saudi Arabia is trying to support its economy from the double strike of the Corona virus and the drop in crude oil prices. The economy is expected to contract by 6.8% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, which will be the deepest contraction in more than 30 years   LINK

Samson:  Iraq loses 90% of border crossing revenues due to "Corruption"

28th July, 2020

Iraq loses 90% of border crossing revenues due to "Corruption" Shafaq News / Member of Parliamentary Finance Committee Jamal Kojar stated today, Monday, that Iraq is losing 90% of border crossing revenues as a result of "corruption".

"Corruption at the border crossings is very large and reaches 90%, as we get no more than a billion dollars," Kojar said in an interview with Shafaq News agency, "at least 11 billion go to the pockets of the corrupt." He continued, "despite the great benefit of Iraq from these outlets, the work of the border crossings is still primitive compared to neighboring countries. There is no electronic system or accurate laboratories in them, although 14 ministries operate it."

Kojar clarified, "there are some corrupt people who intend to keep these ports without developing or installing electronic systems because developing them means-ending corruption."

Mazen al-Feyli, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Investment, said that the border crossings in Iraq achieve annual financial revenues of 10 billion dollars, but only one billion are earned.

On July 25, the Joint Operations Command of the Iraqi Army announced the allocation of security forces to ten land and four naval outlets and confirmed that all of those outlets are now protected by those forces.

Al-Kadhimi announced launching a new campaign against corruption at the border customs points, saying that the country lost millions of dollars due to poor taxation of imported goods. Al-Kadhimi said in a visit to Mandali border crossing with Iran in Diyala on July 11, said that the government will pursue "ghosts" that were transporting cargo trucks across the border without paying customs duties.

Iraq, whose budget depends mainly on oil revenues, is going through the worst economic crisis in its history. Despite being the second-largest oil producer in OPEC, it failed to diversify the economy and find alternatives to black gold. Iraq, due to theft and embezzlement, had lost over 450 billion dollars in the past 17 years.   LINK

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Deputy: A number of judges stand behind corruption and waste of state funds

11:20 - 7/29/2020

Between the independent deputy, Basem Khazaal, that a number of judges were and are still part of the theft and waste of state funds, pointing out that many cases were submitted to the judiciary, but to no avail.

Khazal said to "Information", that "Iraq suffers from a major problem with judicial investigations into corruption files, and the judiciary should have been the true guarantor of the rights of Iraqis, but it was found that the judiciary is the guarantor of the rights of those who violate the rights of Iraqis."

He added that "a lot of corruption cases were submitted to the judiciary, but it turned out that a large part of the state's wasted money finds that the judiciary has a great imprint on it."

And that "the judiciary is an essential part of wasting state funds," explaining that "what is meant by this are a number of judges who were and are still part of wasting and stealing state funds."  LINK

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Samson The US Army announces a high alert at Al-Adeed and Al-Dhafra bases

29th July, 2020

Reuters news agency reported that the US military announced a high alert in Al-Adeed and Al-Dhafra bases due to the Iranian maneuvers in the Gulf waters

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards detonated an embodiment of a US aircraft carrier with missiles on Tuesday during military exercises in the Gulf, which the United States described as reckless and irresponsible

It should be noted that the exercises took place near the Strait of Hormuz, the main sea lane for one-fifth of the world's oil production, due to the impact of increased tension between Iran and the United States. Video footage of the exercises showed that the Revolutionary Guards' air and naval forces were preparing to launch an offensive off the coast in the southwest of the country   LINK