"Tidbits From TNT" Monday 5-8-2023

TNT:

Tishwash:  Iraq’s RMB settlements with China excludes oil trade – official

The decision announced in February covers only commercial imports by the Iraqi private sector

Iraq’s decision to permit trade settlements with China in Renminbi (RMB) instead of the US Dollar only covers commercial imports by the private sector from China, the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI).

Ali Al-Alaq told Zawya Projects that the decision taken in February 2023 to allow trade from China to be settled directly in RMB covers only commercial imports from China by private sector companies and not oil trade.

The Iraqi government’s economic adviser, Mudhir Salih, who was quoted in the February report by Reuters, later clarified to the local media that the decision doesn’t apply to oil trade between the two countries.

Oil trade between Iraq and China is settled in US dollars via oil payments account at the United States’ Federal Reserve, which is the custodian of Iraq’s foreign currency earnings since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Saleh explained that this step is in line with the growing role of the RMB at a time when many countries are looking to diversify their sources of foreign currencies.

In 2022, China imported year, China imported around 55.5 million tonnes of crude oil from Iraq, according to a February 2023 report by yicaiglobal.com.

Iraq ranked fifth among the top 10 crude oil exporters to China's independent refineries, local news website Shafaq News had reported in April, citing China's Customs Administration statement.   link

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CandyKisses:  Iraq Maintains Its 30th Position In The World With The Largest Gold Reserves

Earth News / The World Gold Council announced on Monday that Iraq maintained its 30th rank globally for the fifth consecutive month with the largest gold reserves.

The Council said in its latest schedule for the month of April 2023 seen by Earth News that "Iraq's ranking comes out of 100 countries listed in the table with the largest gold reserves, after it rose ten ranks in July 2022 to reach 130.3 tons, representing 8.1% of the rest of its other reserves."

She added that "Iraq did not buy or sell any amount of gold during the first months of 2023," noting that "the last purchase of gold by Iraq was in June of last year 2022 when it bought a quantity of 33.9 tons."

He pointed out that "the most central banks buying gold during the first quarter of 2023 were Singapore, which bought 68.67 tons, followed by China by 57.85 tons, followed by Turkey with 30.21 tons, then India with 7.26 tons, while the most central banks of countries selling gold during this period were Kazakhstan with 19.64 tons, followed by Uzbekistan with 14.62 tons, and then Cambodia with 10.08 tons."

Globally, according to the table, the United States of America still leads the rest of the countries with the largest gold holdings in the world with 8.133 thousand tons, followed by Germany with 3.355 thousand tons, then Italy came with 2.451 thousand tons, while Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked 100th and by 1.5 tons, preceded by Yemen by 1.6 tons.

On June 27, 2022, Iraq announced the purchase of new quantities of gold with approximately (34) tons, an increase of 35% over what was in its possession.

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Tishwash:  Debts, revenues, lecturers and contracts... Details of the parliamentary hosting of the Minister of Finance

Today, Monday, the Media Department of the House of Representatives announced the details of the parliamentary hosting of the Minister of Finance, Taif Sami, which included discussing the file of lecturers and contracts.

And the media department of the parliament stated in a statement, that “headed by the First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, the Finance Committee, in the presence of Representative Atwan Al-Atwani, Chairman of the Committee and its members, hosted Minister of Finance Taif Sami for the second time to discuss the ministry’s budget, and the possibility of making transfers of amounts to ensure reducing spending and increasing the revenues that are supplied The state treasury, in addition to developing an appropriate strategy on the ministry’s mechanism in relation to spending units.

According to the statement, al-Mandalawi presented "a proposal regarding the sums of money allocated to the governorates for the implementation of service projects and the possibility of conducting transfers, as they are insufficient in exchange for the size of projects within the development of the regions," while requesting "detailed data in this regard," stressing the "maturity of the project."

He pointed out that "the Iraqi people are waiting for the approval of the budget because it is directly related to the lives of the people."

The Chairman of the Finance Committee also welcomed the Minister of Finance, explaining that “hosting includes two axes, the first is the ministry’s budget, which, according to the table listed, is 99% of the current budget allocations, and 1% of the total ministry’s allocations within the general budget law, and the second is access. on the results of previous hosting of ministers.

And he stated, “The ministry’s allocations for previous years were discussed compared to the current year, and the reasons for the increase in spending chapters such as grants, advertisements, and other expenses, and social care,” pointing to “the necessity of maximizing revenues such as taxes, real estate, collection service, and others.”

For her part, the Minister of Finance reviewed "the spending chapters of the ministry," noting that "the volume of sums within the chapters on indebtedness, interest, the Olympic Committee, and other chapters are not in favor of the Ministry of Finance."

And she explained, "The doors of disbursement of amounts related to retirement contributions, martyrs' institutions, accountability, justice, and others for the year 2019," revealing "the formation of a committee within the ministry to calculate the financial costs."

The committee reviewed the most important legal provisions contained in the 2023 Budget Law, which include “conducting transfers at a rate of (30%) to the Baghdad governorate within the development of the regions, and obligating the relevant ministries to activate the service of electricity, telephone, water, sewage, and other fees, in addition to allocations for employee compensation, and the ration card items.” , social care, wheat crops, milk, medicines, and other investment projects.

Interventions during the meeting, which lasted late, included how to pay off foreign debts owed by Iraq and the Ministry's procedures to supplement the state's public treasury, in addition to estimating oil and non-oil revenues and the volume of revenues, accounts and the subject of free lecturers and contracts after 10/2/2019, and the mechanism for including their allocations.

 And the appointment of the first graduates and holders of higher degrees, and commission contracts, in addition to some contracts that did not allocate funds to them.   link

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