On Friday, Iraqi economic experts predicted that the disparity between official and parallel pricing would expand in the following days or weeks, with the dollar exchange rate projected to hit 160 thousand dinars during this period.
“The gap between official and parallel prices is expected to widen in the coming days or weeks,” economist Nabil Al-Marsoumi told Shafaq News Agency, “especially after the release of funds in the 2023 budget and the increase in consumer and investment spending.”
“The previous conditions are still the same,” Al-Marsoumi noted, “meaning that as long as there are American sanctions on Iran that prevent official financial transfers through bank transfers to pay dues to Iranian trade, the gap will remain large and expand over time.”
“The volume of Iranian exports to Iraq exceeds 10 billion dollars annually,” he said, “and these are currently being financed from the parallel market, by collecting travelers’ dollars and transferring them to Iran.”
“Iraqi travelers abroad spend 3 billion and 410 million dollars annually, and they are unable to obtain the dollar at the official rate, so they resort to the parallel market,” the economic expert noted.
According to Al-Marsoumi, “the current factors in Iraq indicate that the gap will widen, and no one will be surprised if the dollar exchange rate reaches 160 thousand dinars in the coming weeks or months.”
“The more the central bank’s ability to arbitrate the electronic platform with the US Federal Reserve, the greater the
According to Al-Marsoumi, “relying on the actions of the Central Bank or the Iraqi government to reduce the gap is difficult to implement, because the issue relates to capabilities that neither the Iraqi government nor the Central Bank possess.”
“The only solution to reduce the gap between the two prices is to cancel US sanctions on Iran and return official transfers to it, or to cut off foreign trade and prevent Iraqi travelers from visiting Iran,” he concluded. Otherwise, the disparity would expand in the near and medium term.”
With the shutdown of Baghdad’s Central Stock Exchange on Thursday, the Iraqi dollar’s exchange rate against the US dollar crossed the 156 thousand mark.
