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Don961:  Source: Parliament will enter a legislative holiday for a month and a half after today's session

Politics 01/20/20 12:24 782 Editor: ht   
Baghdad today - Baghdad

A parliamentary source said, on Tuesday (January 14, 2020), that the parliament will enter a legislative holiday for a month and a half after its session for today.

The source told (Baghdad Today), "The House of Representatives intends to hold its session for this day, after which it will enter into its legislative holiday for a month and a half."

He added, "Parliament will only keep its parliamentary committees."

The media department in the House of Representatives announced Monday (January 13, 2020) the agenda for Tuesday's session.

And the department stated in a statement received (Baghdad today), that "the session will witness the vote on the draft law of accession of the Republic of Iraq to the grain trade agreement of 1995."

The statement added that "the council will also vote on the second amendment bill for the unified retirement law No. (9) for the year 2014, in addition to voting on the proposal of the first amendment law for the law on human organ transplants and the prevention of trafficking in it number (11) for the year 2016."

He continued that "the session will witness the first reading of the proposed law of equivalence of certificates and degrees, in addition to reviewing the report of the Finance Committee regarding the building of the Central Bank of Iraq."

The statement pointed out that "the last paragraph of the session's agenda will be for public discussions," noting that "the session will start at one o'clock in the afternoon."   LINK

Don961:  Association of Lebanese Banks: We are in a dangerous situation and we may be forced to close the banks

14/01/2020

Economy News _ Baghdad

The Association of Lebanese Banks said on Tuesday that it is in a dangerous situation and cannot continue without an executive authority, and may reach a stage when it is forced to close

The politicians have not agreed on a new government or bailout plan since Saad Hariri resigned from the premiership last October, knowing that international bonds for Lebanon worth 2.5 billion dollars are due this year

The president of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, Salim Sfeir, has said that it is likely to restructure the sovereign debt of Lebanon in a way that does not harm the economy or depositors, adding that payment will be made to foreign creditors, as reported by Reuters   LINK

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Don961:  Washington surprised Beijing with "currency decision" .. a step two days ago

l 3 hours ago

The trade truce contributed to easing the pressures on the Chinese yuan.

Agencies - Abu Dhabi

The United States removed China from its blacklist of countries manipulating the value of its currency, in a step that comes two days before the two countries signed a partial trade agreement to establish a truce in the trade war between them, according to a document published by them. Ministry of US Treasury Monday.

In its biannual report to Congress, the ministry said that the value of the yuan has been strengthened and that, in the eyes of the United States, China is no longer a country that is manipulating the price of its currency to boost its exports.

On August 5, by order of President Donald Trump, China placed China on the list of countries that devalue its currency against the dollar in order to boost its exports at the expense of US exports.

However, China will remain on the list of 10 countries that are subject to monitoring, and these countries are in addition to China, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, according to the document issued by the Treasury.

Since March 2018, a fierce trade war has taken place between the United States and China, during which the world's two largest economic powers have exchanged tight customs tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in annual trade exchanges.

The US Treasury's move comes just two days before Trump signed the "first phase" of a trade agreement the two countries reached.

And last August, the Chinese authorities allowed their national currency to drop their price to more than 7 yuan to the dollar, a level unprecedented a decade ago, which led to Tension in stock markets fueled Trump's anger.

"During the summer, China took concrete steps to devalue its currency," which caused the yuan's price to drop "to its weakest level against the dollar in more than 11 years," the Treasury said in its semi-annual report.

China recently boosted its currency to 6.93 yuan to the dollar.

"China has made positive commitments to refrain from devaluating its currency for competitive purposes and by not setting its exchange rate for competitive purposes," said US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchen in a statement.

However, this commitment is not new. Beijing has previously pledged to do the same as a member of the G20 group of the world's largest economies.  LINK

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Don961:  Parliamentary Finance: Parliament will issue an amendment to some paragraphs of the retirement law today

14/01/2020

 Economy News _ Baghdad

The head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Haitham Al-Jubouri, announced on Tuesday that the House of Representatives will issue at its scheduled session this afternoon an amendment to some paragraphs of the retirement law

Al-Jubouri said in a statement, a copy of which was quoted by Al-Iqtisad News, that "state employees born in 1957 are referred for retirement during the current period, and 1958 births are referred to retirement on the first of May"

Al-Jubouri added, “1959 births will be referred on the first of next September, and 1960 births on December 31”    LINK

Don961:  Member of Al-Fateh: More than 75 names were nominated for prime minister

09:02 - 01/14/2020   Information / private ..

Al-Fateh Alliance member Naseem Abdullah said, on Tuesday, that more than 75 names were nominated for prime minister as an alternative to Abdul-Mahdi, pointing out that opinions were dispersed behind the non-resolution of this position, stressing that there are limitations set to choose an alternative personality for Abdul-Mahdi in the next few days.

Abdullah said in a statement to "Information", that "more than 75 names nominated for prime minister were raised during the last period, but did not find an open door that qualifies them to take up this position, because of the limitations that were made for the person who receives the prime minister."

He added that "the street imposed itself and there are new restrictions, as it is not possible under this limitations to come with a person linked to a certain political party to hand over the prime minister."

He explained that "the Presidency of the Republic and the Iraqi street stand against any candidate who represents a certain political party, as the candidate must have the approval of the building and others, and the president and the street that represents the greatest opinion at the present time."

And that "there is a dispersion of opinions regarding the selection of a new prime minister," pointing out that "many names did not appear to the media despite the fact that they were candidates for this position, in addition to the name Ali Shukri was also raised from the beginning, as was Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi, but Things are still in the process of being discussed among the bloc leaders to present a candidate that everyone can agree upon. 25 n ended   LINK

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Don961:  Global debt exceeds $ 252 trillion, reaching a record high

January 13, 2020 08:39 PM

Mubasher - Ahmed Shawky : The global debt increased to more than $ 250 trillion at the end of the third quarter of last year, to set a new record

The report of the International Finance Institute released on Monday revealed that the debt of families, governments, non-profits, and the financial sector increased to 252.6 trillion dollars at the end of the three-month period ending last September, compared to 243 trillion dollars during the same period of the previous year

During the first 9 months of last year, global debt rose by about $ 9 trillion

The Institute of Finance stated that global debt has become 322 percent of the world's gross domestic product, which is a new record, achieving the fastest pace of increase since 2016

 The developed markets debts recorded $ 180.1 trillion in the third quarter of 2019, representing 383 percent of the gross domestic product

The ratio of debt to gross domestic product in emerging markets increased to 223 percent, after debt reached the level of $ 72.5 trillion

The Institute expects that the global debt will exceed the level of $ 257 trillion by the end of the first quarter of last year, led by the debts of non-financial companies due to the low interest rates and concessional financial conditions    LINK

S41755k:  IMO Repo market...banks version of why I don't want to lend money to other banks, banks version. of musical chairs ECB can you hear me now! IMO

ChrisC:  I truly don't know how this is still going.  The banks are being loaned over 450 Billion every night to settle their accounts.  Maybe they can just make up the numbers forever, but it would seem reality would eventually have to take hold.  Maybe some kind of debt forgiveness is planned, otherwise all of our windfall won't overcome that kind of debt.