Thread: Today,1 million Dinar = $____________

well if you are exchanging the dollar for the dinar at cbi....


Today 1 million Dinar = $ 846.02


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Maceman

well if you are exchanging the dollar for the dinar at cbi....


Today 1 million Dinar = $ 846.74


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Iraq Signs Oil Deal With China


Iraq: Government officials have announced that a $3 billion contract has been negotiated with China's national oil company to produce 125,000 barrels a day from the al-Ahdab oil field in the south of the country.

In return for security guarantees China will provide equipment, workers, and expert advice. The deal is the first large foreign contract signed since the collapse of the Saddam regime.

Iraq has oil reserves believed to be in the vicinity of 115 billion barrels, equal with Iran and second only to Saudi Arabia. Officals are also negotiating short term deals with companies including Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Chevron.


Maceman

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Today 1 million Dinar = $ 846.74


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Maceman

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Something that makes you go hummm....

Jeffrey Goldberg (September 02, 2008) - Dexter Filkins: The Progress in Iraq is Remarkable

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Today 1 million Dinar = $ 846.74


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Maceman

IMF ****utive Board Completes First Review of Iraq's Stand-By Arrangement

The ****utive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed today the first review of Iraq's Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), which is designed to support the country's economic program through March 2009. The Board also completed a financing assurances review under the SBA. The SDR 475.36 million (about US$746.3 million) arrangement was approved in December 2007. It is being treated as precautionary by the authorities (see Press Release No. 07/301), and no purchase is planned.

As part of the completion of the first review, the Board also approved Iraq's request for a waiver of an end-June 2008 quantitative performance criterion on the government wage and pension bill.

Following the ****utive Board's discussion of Iraq's economic performance, Mr. Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:

"After several very difficult years, economic prospects for Iraq are improving and the authorities are persevering with the implementation of their economic program in 2008. With the recent improvement in security, oil production and exports are increasing while inflation has been reduced. The strengthened fiscal and external positions offer Iraq a good opportunity to rebuild its institutions and infrastructure in order to achieve sustained higher economic growth. The success of these endeavors will hinge on continued improvements in security, sound management of oil revenues, and implementation of key structural reforms.

"To accelerate economic reconstruction and meet other pressing needs, the supplementary budget for 2008 provides for a sizable spending increase. The additional investment, following several years of public underinvestment, is welcome but will require vigilance to ensure that the quality of public investment is maintained. A civil service salary increase will be phased in over 2008 and 2009 in order to avoid overheating the economy. To keep inflation under control, the Central Bank of Iraq will tighten its monetary policy stance, notably by increasing the pace of appreciation of the dinar and by keeping its policy interest rate positive in real terms.

"Some fuel prices were increased in mid-2008, and the government intends to raise other fuel prices early next year to reduce still-sizable indirect fuel subsidies. The Fund stands ready to assist the authorities in developing an appropriate adjustment mechanism for setting domestic fuel prices.

"It will be important to step up the pace of structural reform. Of particular urgency are the early adoption of a comprehensive reform plan for modernizing public financial management, the finalization of the census of public service employees to eliminate ghost workers, and the streamlining of the in-kind Public Distribution System. In the financial sector, restructuring programs for two major commercial banks based on the completed financial and operational audits should be taken forward, and the set of prudential regulations for commercial banks completed. Establishment of a new legislative framework for the hydrocarbon sector will facilitate investments in the sector.

"Progress has been made in strengthening governance and fighting corruption in the hydrocarbon sector, through oil-metering and Iraq's participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. An extension of the metering system to all oil sector activities will further strengthen transparency in the sector.

"The central bank intends to continue to implement the recommendations of the IMF's Safeguards Assessment Report and the external audit report of its 2007 financial statements. The adoption of reserves management guidelines is an important step in this regard.

"The authorities are making commendable efforts to conclude debt agreements with official non-Paris Club and private creditors that have not yet provided debt relief to Iraq," Mr. Kato said.

Maceman

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...Although GCC currencies (except the Kuwaiti dinar) have stuck with the dollar over during the greenback’s dark days, some analysts feel that the marriage of convenience established between the US and the region may soon end if the dollar doesn’t shape up soon.

Iskandar Najjar, director of Advanced Currency Markets (ACM) for the Middle East and Asia feels the situation is coming to a head. “Until about a month ago, the dollar was depreciating aggressively,” he says. “Over the past year it has dropped between 30 and 40 percent. What’s happening today is a major correction on the dollar. They’re past the worst of the credit crunch, their economic data is improving and the dollar is starting to appreciate. So, the pressure on the GCC governments to revalue or depeg from the dollar has been lifted for the time being. But the long-term outlook to the dollar over the next year is that there is going to be continued depreciation. So deciding to not depeg today is only a short term solution.”

What’s the long-term solution? According to Najjar’s colleague, Hussam Saba, a market analyst at the same firm, “The best option right now is to wait. But any more depreciation of the dollar should get the GCC to start thinking about depegging seriously.”

Hot air. The GCC, however, has been toying with the idea of depegging for at least a year now. If the depreciation of the dollar hasn’t already prompted governments to depeg from the dollar, “Why should they do it now?” asks Woertz. And while some believe that inflation may be solved by breaking away from the dollar, he insists that while that “will have some effect, depegging is not a panacea. It won’t solve the problem.”

So what will solve the problem? “Nothing right now,” is Woertz’s sobering response. “Inflation, so to speak, is the solution because there is so much money chasing few goods, which results in inflation. Theoretically, you should raise interest rates, but no one is doing that now in this kind of threatening scenario. And the GCC countries can’t do it anyway because they are pegged to the dollar.”

Which begs the question: Can the GCC’s currencies ever depeg from the dollar? According toWoertz, technically, yes, but practically no. “Anyway,” he explains, “[GCC currencies] cannot go anywhere else anyway because other capital markets are not that developed and they cannot be developed so long as the whole wide world is basically fuelled by the US deficit spending. They pay us in paper and we pretend it’s worth something, and as long as that goes on, then the world economy keeps running. Otherwise there’s a problem.”


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well if you are exchanging the dollar for the dinar at cbi....


Today 1 million Dinar = $ 848.90

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Maceman

well if you are exchanging the dollar for the dinar at cbi....


Today 1 million Dinar = $ 848.90


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Maceman

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Leaders have vision of burgeoning Baghdad
By Charles Levinson, USA TODAY

Baghdad's leaders are starting to draw up bold plans for the future, envisioning a city they wouldn't have dared to contemplate one year ago, when sectarian militias roamed freely and car bombs were a daily scourge.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Washington | Germany | Baghdad | Cleveland | United Arab Emirates | Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki | City Hall | International Monetary Fund | Bloomberg | Peterson Institute for International Economics | Rashid | Todd Schwartz

well if you are exchanging the dollar for the dinar at cbi....


Today 1 million Dinar = $ 848.90


FOCUS

Maceman

well if you are exchanging the dollar for the dinar at cbi....


Today 1 million Dinar = $ 848.90


FOCUS

Maceman