Evaluation Of The Central Bank’s Journey In 22 Years
Samir Al-Nusairi
Since 2003, the Iraqi economy has suffered from financial and banking challenges and crises due to the difficult and complex subjective and objective circumstances that the country has gone through over the past 22 years.
Since the monetary policy of the Central Bank, according to its Law No. 56 issued in 2004, is responsible for achieving economic stability, overcoming the challenges of the financial and monetary system, and addressing the structural imbalance in the economy in the transition from a rentier economy to a real (productive) economy, as well as from a monetary economy to a digital economy.
During the above period, the Central Bank went through four important and basic stages:
First – reducing rampant inflation in 2003, which exceeded 35%, controlling the stability of the exchange rate, building foreign reserves, and controlling the money supply.
Second – overcoming the economic and security shocks in 2014.
Third – addressing the financial crisis during the Corona pandemic in 2020.
Fourth – controlling the exchange rate, regulating foreign trade financing, achieving digital transformation, enhancing financial inclusion, and complying with international standards in 2023 and 2024
Considering that the Central Bank, in cooperation with the government, has accomplished important steps towards implementing the financial and banking reform methodology and moving towards completing its strategy to achieve the goals according to the roadmap drawn up in 2025,
it is necessary to evaluate and analyze the economic reality over the past 22 years with impartiality and high transparency and identify cases of failure and dysfunction in the productive economic sectors and procrastination in not implementing the economic reform programs that all successive governments have worked on but have not been able to achieve the goals of radical and comprehensive reform for the reasons above.
However, the reality of the situation and the reform efforts made in 2023 and 2024 have made us, as specialists, look with hope and optimism at what has been achieved and what is planned to be achieved in the next two years based on what is stated in the third strategy of the Central Bank with its main and sub-goals.
The banking reform steps taken by the Central Bank from 2003 to 2024 addressed the effects of the economic and security shocks in 2014, most notably the 75% drop in global oil prices and the government’s inability to pay employees’ salaries on time.
The Central Bank was able to use its foreign exchange reserves and the method of rediscounting treasury transfers to support the government in the amount of 16 trillion dinars, and the crisis was overcome at the time.
In 2015, the Central Bank, in light of these difficult economic conditions, began to move to develop its plans for the coming years and draw up a methodology for banking reform and structural, technical and administrative development of the Central Bank.
This resulted in the issuance of its first strategy for the years (2016-2020),
which included 5 main objectives and 140 sub-objectives, 129 of which were achieved, at a rate of 92%, during the years of implementing the strategy.
It contributed to establishing the basic structures and pillars for moving to a new stage of financial and banking reform, accompanied by the strategic banking projects plan for the years (2019-2023) and the issuance of the second strategy (2021-2023) to complete the achievement of the sub-objectives that could not be implemented in the first strategy, which numbered (11) sub-objectives, during which the government continued to seek help from the Central Bank and obtain (30) trillion dinars, and the total amount owed by the government became (46) trillion dinars.
In 2023, the Central Bank worked on studying the achievements of the two previous strategies and diagnosing the foundations of the desired reform.
The efforts to prepare for the third strategy continued throughout 2023, and the foundations and foundations were built to set the goals for this new strategy for the years (2024-2026), which derived its main and sub-goals from the state’s general economic policies and its strategy for financial and banking reform adopted by the government in the government program and from Central Bank Law 56 of 2004.
It included programs with clear goals and initiatives for a period of three years in a special, complex economic and financial circumstance fraught with risks and challenges at the level of internal and external economic and financial relations.
The third strategy identified the main goals with 7 goals, 24 sub-goals and 75 initiatives to achieve
the main and sub-goals and charted the path for banking and financial reform according to the following strategic goals:
1- Supporting and enhancing monetary stability.
2- Enhancing digital transformation, activating electronic payment and supporting cybersecurity.
3- Enhancing financial inclusion
4- Maintaining a sound financial system
5- Developing the organizational structure and human resource capabilities
6- Enhancing the position of the Central Bank locally and internationally
7- Enhancing compliance of the banking sector and the non-banking sector in line with international standards.
Programs, policies and initiatives have been identified to achieve the goals. Perhaps the most prominent program is the launch of the National Strategy for Bank Lending in Iraq (2024-2029) and the approval of the Council of Ministers to implement it, which will restructure banking financing in Iraq,
in addition to leaving the electronic platform and adopting correspondent banks in foreign transfers,
protecting the financial system,
enhancing financial inclusion,
managing monetary and financial stability,
developing oversight and supervision,
developing regulation in the banking sector,
completing the development of the infrastructure for digital transformation,
licensing digital banks,
implementing regulatory policies in the Central Bank in accordance with the frameworks and technologies adopted in global central banks,
raising the capabilities of human resources,
developing banking operations, strengthening the bank’s internal and external relations,
and representing it locally and internationally.
What has been presented accurately and transparently for the 22 years of the financial and banking reform process confirms that the next two years will inevitably result in the transition to a comprehensive and radical reform of the Iraqi banking sector and transforming it into a solid sector that contributes to sustainable development. https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=53139
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