KTFA:

Samson:  The dollar is stabilizing as the Iraqi Stock Exchange stops trading due to the curfew

27th March, 2021

The main stock exchange in the Al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya markets in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, stopped trading on Saturday as a result of the comprehensive ban that was implemented starting from Friday, and which will continue until tomorrow, Sunday.

The Shafaq News Agency correspondent said that the main stock exchange in Al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya Market in Baghdad has stopped trading due to the implementation of the comprehensive ban.

He added that the selling and buying prices have stabilized in the exchange shops in the local markets, some of which have opened their doors in Baghdad, where the selling price reached 145,000 Iraqi dinars, while the purchase prices reached 144,000 dinars per 100 US dollars.

Our correspondent indicated that the stock exchange in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, did not witness any trading today either because of an official holiday there.  LINK

Samson:  Due to fears of halting navigation in the Suez Canal ... Oil prices rise by more than 4%

03/27/2021 11:19:55

 Oil prices rose by more than 4% due to fears that the floatation of a giant, stranded container tanker impeding the movement of navigation in the Suez Canal might take weeks, which could put pressure on the supplies of crude and refined products.

  This is a rebound from a sharp drop in the previous session, against the backdrop of fears that demand will be affected by new lockdown measures linked to the Corona virus in Europe.

Brent crude rose $ 2.62, equivalent to 4.2%, to reach the settlement price of $ 64.57 a barrel, after dropping 3.8% on Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $ 2.41, or 4.1%, to settle at $ 60.97 a barrel, after tumbling 4.3% the previous day. Brent increased 0.1% over the course of the past week, while West Texas Intermediate was down 0.7%, its third consecutive weekly loss.

The oil market has been volatile this week, as investors weigh the potential impact of congestion in the Suez Canal that began on Tuesday and the impact of new lockdown measures linked to the coronavirus.

The Suez Canal today intensified efforts to liberate the delinquent giant ship after previous efforts failed. Efforts to free them could take weeks, with unstable weather potentially causing complications.   LINK

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Samson:  Financial Committee: There is a will that does not want the budget to pass inside the parliament

27th March, 2021

A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Jamal Cougar, confirmed, on Saturday, that there is a will that does not want the budget to pass inside the parliament, while noting that the process is complex and needs several sessions in order to pass the obstacles.

Cougar said in a press interview, "The House of Representatives is now facing a set of crises within the budget that have not been resolved, and there is a will that does not originally want this budget to be passed," indicating that "there are contradictions in positions on the one hand, there are parties that do not want to pass it, and on the other hand, the budget has been since its inception." It was full of traps and points of contention over which there was much controversy."

Cougar added, "What makes the matter worse is the presence of demands from some in matters that are not from the authority of the House of Representatives, or even from the authority of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, and they cling to their positions that there is no vote on the budget without passing those demands," pointing out that "the process is complicated and needs to be done." To several sessions in order to pass the obstacles."    LINK

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Samson:  A parliamentarian reveals the disappearance of tens of billions allocated to Sulaymaniyah Governorate

27th March 2021

Ali Hama Saleh, the deputy for Change Movement in Kurdistan Parliament, announced on Saturday a major financial corruption file in Sulaymaniyah Governorate.

According to Hama Salih, in a post on social media, which he attached with documents, in 2013 a sum of 368 billion dinars was allocated for projects in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, but 48% of the amount was not disbursed, indicating that 54 billion was disbursed, but it disappeared.

He added that "this crime that was committed against Sulaymaniyah was overlooked by the judiciary with a political decision," describing "the independence of the judiciary as a big lie."  LINK

Samson:  For 25 years, Iran and China sign a comprehensive strategic cooperation treaty

03/27/2021 10:57:53

 Iran and China will sign a 25-year economic and strategic cooperation treaty, today, Saturday, according to what AFP quoted the official spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry as saying.

  On Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Tehran, in preparation for the signing of the previously announced strategic agreement. The agreement, whose final details have not yet been announced, is expected to include Chinese investments in the energy and infrastructure sectors in Iran, according to Reuters.  "This document is a complete roadmap that includes strategic political and economic items covering cooperation in the fields of trade, economy and transportation," said Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry on state television. "With a specific focus on the private sector on both sides."

He explained that the agreement focuses on "the economic dimensions that are the main axis of it and Iran's participation in the + Belt and Road + project," the huge Chinese plan to establish infrastructure projects to enhance Beijing's trade relations with Asia, Europe and Africa. He pointed out that the draft agreement dates back to the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Tehran in January 2016, when he decided with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to strengthen relations between the two countries. At that time, the two countries pledged, in a joint statement, to "conduct negotiations to find an expanded cooperation agreement for a period of 25 years," providing for "mutual cooperation and investments in various fields, especially transport, ports, energy, industry and services." The agreement will be signed on Saturday noon, at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between Wang and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

In 2016, China, Iran's largest trading partner, agreed to increase trade exchange between the two countries to $ 600 billion over the next decade. And the former Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, revealed last June, part of the agreement, which he described as "secret". Ahmadinejad said, "The Iranian nation will not recognize a new secret agreement of 25 years between Iran and China," warning that any contract signed with a foreign country without people knowing about it will be void.

According to those leaks, China will invest in various sectors inside Iran in exchange for obtaining oil at reduced prices during the period stipulated in the agreement. China will work on these huge investments in Iranian lands, in addition to developing intelligence and military cooperation, at a time when the leaks indicate that Beijing will build a military base on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf, according to a report published by the "Petroleum Economist" magazine, information that Tehran has denied.

In September of 2019, Petroleum Economist published some of the terms of this agreement between Beijing and Tehran, citing unofficial sources. The monthly magazine said that China intends to invest $ 280 billion in the Iranian oil and gas industry and $ 120 billion in the transportation sector, in contrast, Chinese companies have priority in implementing infrastructure projects.

Last July, The New York Times unveiled the 18-page draft of the agreement, noting that Iran and China had quietly forged a comprehensive economic and security partnership that would pave the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investment in energy and other sectors. The agreement also includes proposals for China to build a 5G communications network infrastructure and introduce a new Chinese global positioning system.

The deal has been in development since 2016, but the Trump administration's campaign of maximum sanctions toward Iran hastened Tehran's embrace of Beijing. Analysts explained that this agreement, which comes within the framework of the Chinese "Silk Road" initiative known as "One Belt, One Road", aims to increase Beijing's influence in the region, given the strategic location that Iran has on the eastern bank of the Gulf waters.   LINK

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Ross:  Can I hear an “Amen!”  Quote:  “ The last statement of the Minister of Finance - Ali Allawi - to make the price of every 1{00} dollars equal to 3{00} thousand dinars, as it was before 2003, confirms that he adheres to the directives of the World Bank, on the pretext that the salaries of the employees of the state sector are burdening the budget! “

Don961:  Imported ready-made recipes will not cure the Iraqi economic and financial collapse

Friday 26th March 2021 - 06:11

Dr.. Abd Ali Awad  Economic researcher and writer

The Iraqi laboratory has become one of the world's richest laboratories in the field of political, economic and social experiments. As the various dilemmas accompanying its collapsing consequences still follow him ...

 If silence prevailed on the part of those concerned with the Iraqi economic and financial affairs, we would have said that it is inevitable to bring ready-made prescriptions from abroad and to seek the help of international economic and financial institutions and international scientific research centers, but after 2003, various studies were published. And research to address the Iraqi economy and how to advance it did not find deaf ears. 

 The last statement of the Minister of Finance - Ali Allawi - to make the price of every 1{00} dollars equal to 3{00} thousand dinars, as it was before 2003, confirms that he adheres to the directives of the World Bank, on the pretext that the salaries of the employees of the state sector are burdening the budget! 

He did not bother with his consultant team to involve the Ministry of Planning to develop an integrated study to transfer the majority of state sector employees to the private sector, which in turn stipulates providing job opportunities by granting loans with the application of the Social Security Law for the employees of that sector. I mentioned several years ago that the national economy, with its private sector, needs an estimate of 50 thousand industrial, agricultural and service production projects, and this huge number of projects can absorb unemployment in its both declared and disguised parts / the redundant state sector employees /.  

 It seems clear to us that there is a contradiction between Parliament legislation and executive authority agreements that take the nature of deals, so where is the commitment of the Council of Ministers to implement the laws on protecting the national product and protecting the consumer! 

The inherited problem in running the state is that the ruler has the absolute right to dispose of state funds, which are the people's money, unlike what is prevalent in countries with long-standing democracies with their constitutional institutions ..

And here we are on the eve of a tripartite meeting between Al-Kazemi, King Abdullah II and President Al-Sisi, and the indications for that meeting It suggests that Iraq should be a consumer market for the goods of those countries in addition to Jordan and Egypt’s insistence on completing the extension of the oil pipeline from Iraq to the port of Aqaba at the expense of Iraq and the beneficiaries of that project are Jordan and Egypt. Iraq is the only one affected .. Likewise, Egypt's desire to export its labor to Iraq is as if Iraq suffers from a shortage of internal manpower ...

Whoever wants to build his country must set his sights on Iraq to infinity.It is possible to conclude any agreements between Iraq and any other country if those agreements are in the interest of the two countries, but if they are in the interest of the other country and cause harm to Iraq, then there is no need to think about them.  LINK