Ali Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), reported on Saturday that government payments will reach 912 billion dinars in July 2024, a record increase from 800 billion to 2 trillion dinars in a single year.
Al-Alaq highlighted that “the CBI is aligning with the government program and the Prime Minister’s directives to support electronic payments” when he spoke at a workshop on advancing electronic payments that was organized by the “Osoul” Foundation for Economic and Sustainable Development and covered by.
“We are proud of our accomplishments and the significant increase in amounts processed through the national exchange in 2023,” the Prime Minister stated. “This reflects improved infrastructure, expanded use of electronic payment channels, and the impact of the PM’s campaign to boost electronic payments, especially in the government sector.”
The Governor stated that “in 2024, upward trends continued with processed amounts in national exchange systems exceeding 2 trillion Iraqi dinars (1.527 billion USD) in July alone, up from 800 billion dinars (610,687,016 USD) in July 2023, and reaching 1 trillion dinars (763,855,422 USD) in December 2024.” This figure was a significant increase from the 800 billion dinars (610,687,016 USD) in July 2023.
“Additionally, government payments saw a significant increase, rising from 287 million dinars (219,083.97 USD) in July 2023 to 912 billion dinars in July of this year.”
Al-Alaq further demonstrated that “installments at Baghdad corner stores flooded to north of 44 billion dinars in July 2024, up from 183 million dinars (139,694.65 USD) in July 2023 and 4.5 billion dinars (3,435,114.46 USD) in December 2023.”
Besides, he revealed “a huge expansion in POS retail locations, which have ascended to more than 50,000 this year from around 11,000 toward the beginning of 2023, remembering thousands for government foundations, up from zero preceding the mission started in June 2023.”
“We trust government foundations will lay out specific units to direct and progress electronic installment advances.”