TNT:

Tishwash:  Workers struggling to get by in Sulaimani as economic crisis continues

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Workers and small business owners in Sulaimani are struggling to make ends meet as the economic crisis continues. 

"I swear to God, I have made only 5,000 dinars since the morning," one man told Rudaw from the streets of Sulaimani city, where he sells goods at the side of the road. 

Daily labourers in the city are struggling to even find work. 

"I came to work at 5 am in the morning. The sun has just risen. No one has come to hire me. I will wait until 9 or 10 am. If there is no one to hire me, I will be forced to go back home," said Kamal Salim. 

"Sometimes I am hired only twice a week. Sometimes I am never hired," he added.

"I sat down in the shop for three hours and a half. I just sold dates for 4,000 dinars. Who can I feed with this money?" said a vendor in the city.

It is not only the employed who are suffering. 

Widow Fatima Mohammed has not bought chicken for weeks. She lost her job a month ago.  

"How are you supposed to survive when you don't have a salary, when you do not have a shop, a car or a house? My life has been filled with hardship," she said. 

I have not been able to buy chicken for a month or two. I swear to God, I have not been able to afford to buy clothes for myself and my children. I wear second-hand clothes.

The Kurdistan Region's economic woes have deepened in recent months amid ongoing budget disputes with Baghdad. Erbil relies on its share of federal funds to pay its civil servants.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) civil servants went unpaid for much of 2020, and the government has been unable to pay its employees in full and on time for over five years. 

The economic situation has worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw oil prices plummet and the ensuing devaluation of the dinar - forcing up the price of goods.  link

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Tishwash:  Iraq: The fall of the dinar changes habits

The recent step of the Iraqi authorities to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar constituted new burdens and challenges on Iraqi families, many of whom were forced to abandon their habits.

The value of the US dollar after the Iraqi government resorted to reducing the dinar, in an attempt to pull the country out of the financial and economic crises, reached 1450 dinars, after it was stable at the threshold of 1200 dinars over the past years. 

This led to large losses that were close to a quarter of the value of the Iraqis ’savings in funds, as well as a quarter of the value of their monthly salaries. Employees and people with limited income found themselves facing challenges, some of which remind them of the economic blockade after the Second Gulf War (1990-91) in terms of living habits and measures taken by the family.

Postponing marriage plans and canceling tourist trips, through stopping housing rehabilitation and furnishing schemes, to what happened to clothes and the quality of food, and dispensing with domestic workers, all of which have become the focus of the Iraqi debate, within the same family. Muhammed Salam, a resident of Baghdad, says that the markets for clothes (used clothes and shoes mostly) will return to recovery, as will the sales associations in installments, leading to the recycling of many household items and dispensing with other purchases, all of which remind of the days of the economic blockade. "

 To Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “My salary is 620 thousand dinars, and it was previously equivalent to 516 dollars, but today it is about 425 dollars, and since everything we import from abroad, even tomatoes and cucumbers, this means that the prices are increasing and the salary has been broken by the government and the back of his family,” according to his expression.

Umm Mustafa lives in difficult living conditions, after she collected an amount of money to build a room in the yard of the house for the marriage of one of her three sons, as she was unable to complete the construction and the room's annexes of health facilities fully, after the fall of the Iraqi currency and the rise in prices accordingly. She told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “For more than a year, I collected the money to build this room, as our small house is not enough for any of my children to marry in it. My eldest son, who works as a tuk-tuk driver to support us. The decision to stop construction affected the psychological condition of my son, who had made every effort to collect with me the amount of the construction, which was supposed to remain part of it to buy the marriage supplies.

As for Abdul Salam Jabbar, a retired employee, he says: “I live on my retirement salary of 237,000 dinars, and so it has decreased from about $ 200 to $ 163. Also, I was unable to pay some of the debts to the grocer and butcher, and I do not know how I will be able to pay them back in the next month. " Jabbar added to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “I borrowed a lot of money three months ago for a heart operation, and I was paying off some debts from retirement because I spent on my disabled wife as well, and she needs a lot of expenses and treatment, as a result of her stroke.

It was surprising and shocking because many of the prices in the Iraqi market rose, and this is harmful to us, as we do not have income other than our pension.

The local markets depend on providing their needs on about 90 percent of the imported goods from various neighboring countries and the world, which means that prices will rise by about 30 percent, according to traders. In contrast, there is no additional income for employees or even low-income families; This increases poor families. According to official statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, poverty levels at the provincial level rise in the southern regions by between 30 and 35 percent of the population, in the central governorates it is close to 20 percent, and in Baghdad it reaches about 13 percent, and in the Kurdistan region. Iraq amounts to about 12 percent. The decision to devalue the currency was made officially, to increase the already high poverty rates.

The spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, announced last December that more than 12 million Iraqis are below the poverty line, indicating that the poverty rate in the country amounted to about 30 percent during the year 2020. Iraq was forced to Borrowing from the central bank’s reserves, in dollars, to pay nearly $ 5 billion a month, representing public sector salaries and pensions.

The former advisor at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Dr. Ali Al-Obeidi, acknowledges the significant social impacts on Iraqi families due to the decision to devalue the national currency, which the government overlooked.

 Al-Obaidi added that there are families who have actually entered into a state of austerity, and others have canceled marriage or travel plans, rehabilitate their homes, or study their children, etc. A harsh social imposed on them by the decline in the value of the dinar. He continues to "Al-Araby Al-Jadeed" that "the habits of extravagance and many aspects that were considered entertainment or luxuries in the family may gradually disappear after the financial crisis pressured every Iraqi home."   link

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Tishwash:  The Central Bank of Oman introduces new cash denominations

The Central Bank of the Sultanate of Oman introduced new denominations of currency, to complement the sixth issue of the new national banknotes.

According to the Oman News Agency, today, Sunday, the new denominations are twenty riyals, ten riyals, five riyals, one riyal, half riyals, and 100 baisa.  link

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