News, Rumors and Opinions Wednesday Morning 5-27-2020
TNT:
Tishwash: Iraq pushes for Rescheduling of Reparations to Kuwait
5-27-2020
Iraq's Minister of Finance, Ali Allawi, arrived in Kuwait on Saturday for talks with senior officials.
Mr. Allawi held discussions with the Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, on bilateral relations and delivered a written message from Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.
He also held talks with the Minister of Finance, Barrak Al-shootan, the Minister of Oil, Khaled Al-Fadhel, the Deputy Foreign minister, Khaled Al-Jarallah and other senior Kuwaiti officials.
The discussions focused on taking forward and implementing the decisions of the International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq held in Kuwait in February 2018, linking the electricity grids of the two countries, and rescheduling Iraq's compensation payments to Kuwait.
The two sides also discussed encouraging Kuwaiti investment in Iraq, especially in the commercial and industrial sectors, and in infrastructure.
Mr. Allawi earlier visited Saudi Arabia where he held talks with Saudi officials on deepening economic and commercial and cooperation.
(Source: Govt of Iraq) link
Tishwash: Report: Al-Kazemi received 'scrap' in the state treasury ... and oil prices are 'promising' to get out of the crisis
The London Arab newspaper said today, Wednesday, that the gradual rise in global oil markets gave Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Al-Kazemi hope to overcome the country's financial crisis, which he inherited from his predecessor, Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
According to a report by Nass, (27 May 2020), the Iraqi Minister of Planning Khaled Battal acknowledged that the new government had received a cabinet containing some scrap, which is the common term used in the country to describe the small amounts of money.
According to the newspaper, "The Iraqi government needs approximately four billion dollars a month to finance the salaries of millions of employees, retirees and social benefits, which are payable amounts."
It quoted informed sources that "Iraq's revenues from selling oil, between the beginning of last March and the end of May this year, will reach about 5 billion dollars at best, while the actual salaries need is approximately 12 billion dollars, which puts the government in the face of a devastating deficit."
The sources said, "The Prime Minister received very promising Arab and international promises regarding providing adequate financial support to Iraq in order to overcome this economic crisis."
Beneficiaries of government salaries and subsidies breathed a sigh of relief when the government announced that it would pay the salaries of this May in full without deduction.
But the government's use of the term "deduction" to talk about salaries in May has fueled widespread speculation that deductions will inevitably come in the coming months.
Iraq relies on oil to finance about 98 percent of the annual spending budget, and due to the drop in global oil prices, the country has lost about two-thirds of its monthly revenue. The tragedies of Iraq did not stop there, as the "OPEC +" agreement contributed to deepening it, after obliging it to give up about a quarter of its exports to meet the oversupply in the markets.
"With the massive recession due to the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, Iraq is facing difficulty in finding buyers for its oil, which has tightened the noose on the Kazemi government, amid popular fears of failure to provide salaries, which are the main driver of the country's internal economies, in light of the chronic paralysis that the private sector is exposed to." ".
And added, "But Iraq does not need the money to pay the salaries of its employees only, but there are wages to extract oil for foreign companies and service the internal and external debt and support many sectors such as health, education, transportation, etc., as well as public services."
And the report added, "In the event that the amounts allocated to the investment and development budgets are added, the amount that Iraq needs to cover all aspects of operational, investment and development spending will be about 10 or 12 billion dollars, which amounts were previously included and even spent in previous budgets during the era of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki when it was Oil prices are too high. "
"On Tuesday, Al-Kazemi received promising news about oil markets, as the Brent mix registered a remarkable increase, amid expectations that global markets will continue its gradual recovery in conjunction with the expected increase in demand due to the easing of the closing procedures in many countries."
Previously, planners in the Iraqi Finance Ministry had set a hypothetical safe barrier for the price per barrel in the global market, which is $ 56 to build on the spending budget.
But economists believe that selling Iraq per barrel of oil now at a price revolving in the orbit of $ 40 will secure the necessary spending needs amid expectations that this price may be affordable for producers within weeks from now.
What about visiting Saudi Arabia?
The report believes that "the rapid announcement of the provision of staff salaries during the month of May, in full and without deduction, in conjunction with a visit by the Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi to Saudi Arabia, in his capacity as an envoy from Al-Kazemi, an indication of what the new government can take of decisive steps, amid Great concern among Iraqi parties, groups and militias loyal to Iran. link
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Courtesy of Dinar Guru
Frank26 ...everything is happening at an amazing fast pace, warp speed with the reinstatement of the dinar, the monetary reform itself. It's at a point right now where it's coming so fast that you can't miss it...
KTFA:
Don961: Iraq Printed 56 Trillion Dinars During The Past Years
May 26, 2020
The economist, Rasem Al-Akidi, spoke about the 3 most important controls that must be observed when printing the national currency, in order to prevent the high prices in the country and the poor segments from being harmed.
Al-Akidi said: “Any process of printing the Iraqi local currency must take into account 3 important factors, which are the monetary mass (the amount of money that is printed) the volume of the deal (i.e. after the currency is printed, how much will be its size in markets, stores, homes, banks) and the volume of trading (i.e. How many activities that deal in the national currency, and how many activities that deal in hard currencies, including the dollar).
He added: Any process of printing the national currency must be printed according to the economic cycle of the country, i.e. the sum of all commercial activities and practices that take place and on the basis of which the volume of cash transactions will be.
He pointed out that "Iraq when it printed 40 trillion dinars and then reached 56 trillion in the past years, that was according to the economic cycle of the country", indicating that "any increase in the nature of more than the need of the economic cycle will create more monetary mass than the market need, which leads to Creating inflation that pushes up prices. LINK
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Vietnam Dong News 05/26/20 (I know how they can afford these rates)
Pimpy’s Investment Chat : May 27, 2020