Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Gold sharply rises in Kirkuk on higher demand

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05 July 2006 (Aswat Al Iraq)
Gold prices rose sharply over the past two days in Kirkuk on increased consumer demand, jewelers and traders said on Wednesday.

The price of a 21-carat gram rose 10,000 dinars (about seven U.S. dollars) to fetch 120,000-135,000 dinars, they told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Trader Bakhtiar Mohammed said residents, especially working women, were buying gold as a value asset because of the security situation.
Lack of security caused losses for the traders as they were unable to travel to Baghdad to buy new stocks, Mohammed said.

Mohammed al-Qadi, a Kirkuk gold market jeweler, said better security would positively reflect on the economy which in turn would increase demand for gold.

“Clients in the market either belong to the rich class that likes to collect gold as jewelry or working women who head to the market to buy jewelry when they get their salaries,” he added.

Traders give working women easier selling terms and allow them to buy on credit, he said.
The Kirkuk market mainly trades locally-made jewelry or gold works imported from the United Arab Emirates.

“Demand is big for Emirates gold because of its high purity and modern designs…There is also good demand for jewelry made in several Iraqi cities especially Baghdad and Mosul,” Qadi said, adding that there were no statistics for gold trade in the province.

06 July 2006 (Baghdad: Al-Iraqiyah TV)
The Minister of Finance, Baker Jaber AL Zubaidi, has held discussions with the Italian and Chinese Ambassadors on the best ways to speed up economic and trade cooperation between Iraq and China and Italy.

The Minister and the Italian Ambassador agreed to hold an economic conference in which both the Iraqi and Italian private and public sectors would participate. They agreed that such a conference would offer the opportunity to solve problems to future cooperation that could be settled by practical and scientific mechanisms that would be devised and applied. The venue and date of the conference were not specified, although Rome and Baghdad were mentioned.

AL Zubaidi and the Chinese diplomat discussed present trade relations between Iraq and China and the increasing role of both countries' private sectors in developing booming trade mainly in consumables that are flooding the Iraqi market. The Minister focused discussions on the potential for benefiting from Chinese expertise in the reconstruction effort.

The Chinese Ambassador also offered the Ministry of Finance two set of highly developed equipment to be used by Customs officials in finding irregularities.
The Ambassador also conveyed his government's decision to write off all its debt on Iraq, which makes a 100% abolition of all official public debt. As far as the debt owed to the Chinese private Chinese, the Ambassador said that this will be handled in accordance with the Paris Club Declaration.

He said that China is expecting the arrival of an Iraqi delegation to check and and sign a mutual agreement based on the principles above.

The Ambassador also offered to train Iraqi teams in a neighboring country, such as Kuwait.

06 July 2006 (Baghdad: Al Sabah newspaper)
The Central Bank of Iraq has agreed the granting of a license to Beirut Bank, established in 1963 and considered the sixth bank in Lebanon.

The license will entitle the Bank to open a branch in Baghdad, in order to continue building relationships with other Iraqi banks through opportunities made available by financing, which the Bank's Board has put at the discretion of Iraqi banks.

Conversely, the Beirut Bank will grant Iraqi banks the freedom to expand relations through dealing with the London branch. Beirut Bank owns adequate capital, allowing it to act freely in various international markets, particularly in the financing of foreign trade operations.

The Board has decided to allocate adequate credit limits to meet demand within the promising Iraqi market.

The bank has 41 Lebanese branches, active branches in London and Cyprus, and representative bureaus in UAE and Nigeria. The Bank has chosen the Iraqi financial expert Abdul Aziz Hasson as Head of its Baghdad branch.

Baghdad-morning
Leaders of some groups have declared themselves ready to fight terrorists
For his part, Minister of State for National Dialogue, Dr. Akram Al-Hakim that up to twenty armed groups have expressed their dialogue in the framework of the national reconciliation a number of leaders of those groups were ready to fight the cells of satisfaction and foreign terrorists in an operation to accept the principles of the draft Maliki.


Wise outlined in a press conference yesterday that the final outcome refers to the high turnout of 15 to 20 armed group of unknown impact on the Iraqi reality with the exception of one group said the wise : to have their weight, according to his personal knowledge, However, they were required not to disclose the title. The seven groups rejected the project data via the Internet gateway to the required recognition of the resistance first dialogue, the government has asked these groups diagnosis itself. Al-Hakim said : Some of these factions demanded that the scheduling of the withdrawal and the disarming of militias and the rebuilding of the former army and the abolition of the law to uproot the Baath, He pointed out that the government has provided convincing answers are not stray far from the climate of reconciliation. It appears that these groups contacted President Jalal Talibani, brokered by some members of Parliament or transferred desire across Arab channels. In the meantime, the newspaper quoted (U s any claim) issued yesterday to MPs Haider Abbadi example Alalosi say : that the Iraqi government is studying a request from some leaders of armed groups with weapons in order to be able to respond to the foreign terrorists who are working in organizations that were not covered by the reconciliation Kaltekverein and Al Qaeda. These statements refer to the desire of the leaders of armed groups to demonstrate good faith before entering into Almvaudha T. The deputy said Haider Abbadi : they say : that they are able to eliminate the terrorists and to work with the government, However, Alalosi advised the government not to increase the militias at a time when it works to disarm.

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Originally Posted by ourhouse37

Just a question,
Bruce's dinar site offers "collectible" notes and coins from the Saddam era, and seems to indicate that these will be worth something someday. Is that true?

Probably not...Counterfeiting the Saddam era dinars was rampant. Providing you had some pristine and "real" examples, it would take decades for them to be worth anything to "somebody". More than likely, Saddam will be a footnote in history and, as such, no one will care what "his" money looked like let alone pay very much for it. Just my thoughts...

EW

Yes, and remember that a "collector's item" is depending on the existence of a collector willing to pay something for it. The value of the item is then exactly the amount the collector is ready to pay. I don't think that there will be any demand for Saddam's money for a long time....

thanks!

Originally Posted by everwiser

Probably not...Counterfeiting the Saddam era dinars was rampant. Providing you had some pristine and "real" examples, it would take decades for them to be worth anything to "somebody". More than likely, Saddam will be a footnote in history and, as such, no one will care what "his" money looked like let alone pay very much for it. Just my thoughts...

EW

Well, maybe Saddam would like to have a souvenier for his jail cell! LOL!

Has anyone seen any news on the meeting they were to have yesterday? I feel we're getting soooooo close.

cigarman, see this link: http://www.iraqigovernment.org/index_en_new1.htm