News, Rumors and Opinions Monday 2-15-2021
TNT:
Crileyhome: Iraq Govt begin Implementation Phase of White Paper for Economic Reform
The Iraqi government is preparing to begin the implementation phase of its reform programme known as the White Paper for Economic Reform.
This phase will focus on the implementation mechanisms and on the fulfilment of the objectives and the vision outlined by the White Paper.
The implementation phase consists of:Putting in place governance, oversight, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that the reform process is administrated and managed effectively under the direction and guidance of strong and competent leadership which will have a direct link to the Prime Minister, with the aim of equipping the implementation team with the necessary authority to carry out the reform programme, providing vigorous oversight of the implementation process, and ensuring coordination between different governmental institutions
Translating the vision of the White Paper for Economic Reform into a practical programme for delivering 64 projects and for ensuring their implementation in an integrated and coherent manner by specifying detailed procedures for each project, setting a specific timeline for progress and identifying the state entity which will be responsible for carrying out each project
The Iraqi government adopted the White Paper for Economic Reform prepared by the Crisis Cell for Financial and Fiscal Reform in October 2020.
The White Paper is a comprehensive programme that sets out a clear roadmap to reform the Iraqi economy and address the accumulated, decades-old serious challenges that confront it.
The White Paper identified two overarching strategic objectives. The first is to initiate an immediate reform programme to address the budget deficit to create a fiscal space to give time for the process of implementing the other wider reforms over the medium term.
The second objective is to put the economy and the federal budget on a sustainable path, after which Iraqis can decide and choose the economic direction of the country.
The White Paper anticipates that the short and medium-term objectives and associated reforms will require between 3 to 5 years to implement.
The White Paper for Economic reform enjoys the support of the international community as reflected by the establishment of the Iraq Economic Contact Group (IECG) whose mission is to provide the support needed for the economic reform process in Iraq within the framework of the White Paper. The IECG includes, in addition to Iraq, the G7 group of industrialised countries, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Union.
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Tishwash: Deputy: The devaluation of the dinar did not achieve economic feasibility and its consequences are serious
A member of the committee monitoring the implementation of the government program and strategic planning, Enaam Al-Khuzaie, confirmed today, Sunday, that the continued devaluation of the dinar in the financial budget will cause the crushing of the vulnerable classes.
In a statement, Al-Furat News received a copy of it, Khuzaie said, "After two months of devaluing the Iraqi dinar for development reasons, as announced by the government, the allegations of revitalizing the national product have not been realized. Rather, price levels have risen for all imported and national goods due to the latter's dependence on mostly imported production inputs. Pointing out that "the amendments to the draft budget law did not include a change in the exchange rate, despite its inclusion in the text of the draft budget."
She added that "the initiation of the devaluation of the dinar for developmental reasons needs many introductions that Iraq is unable to achieve a small part of it in the short term," noting that "reducing the value of the dinar in a deflationary situation increases the economic situation and threatens to widen the depth of the existing recession and generate inflationary waves that crush low-income classes." Seriously, especially with the weak social protection programs needed to absorb the impact of the exchange rate shock on the vulnerable classes.
Al-Khuzaie explained that "the goal of reducing the exchange rate of the dinar was dual and with financial and monetary motives, as the financial motives were represented in the government's desire to maximize oil revenues in dinars to reduce the size of the financial deficit."
She noted that "the monetary motives were the desire of the central bank to reduce its sales of dollars to the market, which is what has been achieved now at the expense of high prices."
And she believed that, instead of reducing the value of the dinar, it would have been more effective to reduce current spending and reduce the sources of demand for the dollar to maintain price stability and limit the depletion of the dollar reserve at the central bank instead of reducing the value of the dinar in order to maintain the greed of current spending and sacrifice price stability in Iraq, Expressing its grave concern over the failure of government performance to achieve its set and planned goals.
Al-Khuzai called for "avoiding the negative effects resulting from the devaluation of the dinar by adjusting the exchange rate in the federal budget 2021 and in a way that suits the living standards of the poor and low-income people, calling for an amendment to the exchange rate policy, as was previously done in Article 50 of the 2015 budget when the House of Representatives set dollar sales with a ceiling." $ 75 million with equity in the sale. link
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MarkZ:
MarkZ @originalmarkz · 1h 2/15/2021 Due to an internet outage Coffee with MarkZ will be running on a fluid time table. Ice storms have wreaked havoc in my area. Will be live when able and will Tweet accordingly. MarkZ @originalmarkz · ·
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Courtesy of Dinar Guru
Jeff ...Is there any news we should be aware of? Is anything major happening that's critical? The answer is you're seeing the last final step right before your eyes. It's the '21 budget...I've already told you when their fiscal is. Their fiscal year starts April 1st. I know that for a fact because I've reached out and consulted with the Iraqi government...that's where we're at. The '21 budget is the last step before the rate change...Iraq is very clearly walking in Kuwait's footsteps.
Pimpy Article: "The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil reaches $62.34" It seems like it's going up about a buck or so every couple weeks. This is good. Keep on going up. I know we want Iraq to rely on something else other than oil but it sure would be nice if they got a lot of revenue higher than what they budgeted for. This can help them really start taking a lot of these monies...so they can start developing and reconstructing Iraq, provide jobs to the public. This is what we're looking for...as there's more jobs that are available then...the dinar becomes stronger.
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(2/15) Iraq Rate Change
Feb 15, 2021