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CandyKisses: Sudanese Adviser: Iraq Is In A State Of High Economic Stability

Earth News / Prime Minister Mazhar Mohammed Saleh's economic adviser said on Saturday that Iraq is living in a high state of economic stability.

Saleh told Earth News that "the country is living in a high state of economic stability as a result of the adoption of the general budget law and the launch of new projects and works in their various joints, and that the budget law may already touch a positive income in addition to more than one million citizens between new jobs and an expansion in social welfare, with a high determination in maintaining support programs in the scope of fuel, agriculture and food baskets.

Saleh added, “The launch of the spark of service businesses nationwide and has led to the activation of the business sector and the labor market at the same time, especially in the fight against unemployment activities and the continuation of a strong demand policy that helps to sustain the provision of job opportunities.”

Saleh pointed out that "an reconstruction activity in the construction, building and infrastructure sector is in a diligent state and has not stopped, but is on the escalation of progress, noting that the construction sector is one of the vital sectors responsible for the employment of about 20% of the national labor force in various business and human skills."

Saleh pointed out that "Iraq currently enjoys a surplus in the current account of the balance of payments relative to GDP - close in my personal estimate - 10% - a positive - which is a high indicator that helped strengthen Iraq's stock of foreign currency reserves supporting stability."

Saleh continues, “There are great hopes waiting for the launch of both the Iraq Development Fund and the Investment Development Road project. Thus, the meeting of positive factors in the course of economic life is now surpassing many of the inherited negatives after the vision and the right path of development became clear, which truly expresses an effective partnership between the state and the market or the private sector without neglecting the social goals in maximizing human happiness and well-being and providing life guarantees, which is the ideal goal that the state is seeking now and in the future.”

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Tishwash: Is Iraq able to prevent dealings in dollars to restore the "prestige" of the dinar? – Urgent

On Saturday (August 26, 2023), the expert in economic affairs, Mustafa Akram Hantoush, confirmed the difficulty of canceling dealing in dollars, especially since Iraq imports everything in hard currency .

Hantoush told "Baghdad Today" that "the government's tendency to sell cars in Iraqi dinars instead of US dollars is very difficult from a practical point of view, despite the government's attempt to impose pledges on exhibition owners and carry out a massive arrest campaign. "

He added, "The decision is practically difficult to implement, since the car trade passes through a global market that deals in hard currency, because we do not have the possibility of manufacturing cars inside Iraq, and we only have the Mahmoudiya factory ."

He pointed out that "large quantities of cars are imported from abroad and in the currency of the dollar, and therefore they are priced in hard currency, and even if they are priced in dinars, this will be done on the basis of the last price of the dollar, and therefore the citizen will not benefit anything from the process of selling cars in dinars. "

And that "the central bank is trying to strengthen the currency by reducing access to the dollar by traders only ."

The government is trying to control the continuing rise in the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar in the market, about seven months after its official decision to raise the value of the Iraqi dinar at a price of 1320 per dollar .

The government had taken a decision last February to raise the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar, after its price at the end of 2020 reached 1,470 dinars per dollar. It was implemented by the previous government to bridge the deficit in expenditures and salaries due to the drop in oil prices in global markets .

The dollar is forbidden

The Ministry of the Interior prevented merchants and citizens from dealing in dollars in markets and shops, and restricted transactions to Iraqi dinars.

It seems that the security solution to the rise in the price of the dollar in the parallel market inside Iraq did not achieve any significant results, but rather complicated the economic scene and led in part to a rise in prices in the Iraqi markets.

Economic specialists point out that the market requires many measures to maintain the stability of the currency, most notably preventing smuggling. link

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CandyKisses: Panama Canal To Restrict Navigation For A Year Due To Drought

The Panama Canal Authority has announced that it plans to restrict shipping for a year, after weeks of imposing measures due to drought that has reduced the level of water needed to operate this vital maritime trade corridor between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The canal suffers from a shortage of rainwater to transport ships through a series of huge gates that act as water elevators that allow ships from the Pacific and Atlantic sides to be lifted to the level of the canal or lowered to sea level.

Since July 30, the Canal Authority, through which 6% of global maritime trade passes, has reduced the number of ships allowed to cross daily from 40 to 32. The drought, made worse by El Niño's weather phenomenon, prompted the canal's management to allow ships to cross under the surface of the water with a hull depth of only 13.11 meters.

"Currently, we intend (to extend these restrictions) for a year, unless there is heavy rainfall in September, October and November to fill the basin that feeds the canal and fills the two lakes," Canal Authority deputy director Elia Espino told AFP on Thursday evening.

Two artificial lakes, Alajuela and Gatun, supply the canal with the water needed to operate the control gates. But their level dropped significantly due to drought.

Espino said the time period would give shipping companies time to better "plan" for their ships to cross the canal linking the Caribbean and Pacific Sea, and allow boats to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific without circumventing South America.

The 80-kilometre canal employs shipping companies, most notably from the United States, China and Japan. On Thursday, about 130 ships were waiting to cross the waterway, compared to about 90 usually.

Espino acknowledged that the authority is able to "easily handle a queue of 90 vessels... But 130 or 140 causes us problems and delays."

While the waiting period used to be between three and five days, it is now averaging 11 days, although some ships sometimes have to wait 19 days.

Each ship consumes 200 million litres of fresh water.

Panama Canal to restrict navigation for a year due to drought - Earth News (earthiq.news)

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