On Thursday, Prime Minister Mohamed Shiaa Al-Sudani stated that economic reform must start with the financial and banking sectors. He also mentioned that the government is committed to providing the dollar at the official rate. He emphasized that the Iranian side has no issues conducting business with Iraq using dinars or tomans.
During a televised interview, Al-Sudani stated that conducting a population census is the first step towards implementing Article 140 of the Constitution. Due to the provincial council elections, the census was postponed from its date this year and has now been rescheduled for May 2024. Al-Sudani highlighted the need to resolve outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil, specifically those related to border crossings and the budget.
“I am emphasizing that we are in favor of finding a legal solution that considers the employees of Kurdistan region as equal to the rest of the employees of Iraq. We went to borrow from the Ministry of Finance to pay the salaries of the Kurdistan region employees. The government is keen to end the suffering of the Kurdistan employees’ salaries crisis.”
Regarding trade, Al-Sudani said, “95 percent of our trade now goes through the electronic platform. Some people buy the dollar at the parallel price to avoid legal procedures, which is not acceptable. We cannot allow the official dollar price to be equal to the parallel price as it encourages smuggling.”
Al-Sudani also mentioned that there is no problem with commercial dealings with Iran using dinar or toman currencies. The issue with commercial transfers to Turkey was resolved by opening accounts in Turkish lira.
Lastly, he pointed out that food prices have remained stable, despite attempts by speculators to manipulate the cost of the dollar.
