“Tidbits From TNT” Sunday 10-8-2023

TNT:

Tishwash:  Economist: Withdrawing the US Federal Reserve will end the dollar crisis

Former member of the Parliamentary Economics Committee, Abdul Hussein Al-Yasiri, today, Sunday, attributed the reason for the continued rise of the dollar to the American policy towards Iraq.

 Al-Yasiri said in a statement to Al-Maalouma: “The solution to the dollar crisis lies in obtaining a portion of the Iraqi funds in the US Federal Bank.”

He added, “The rise in the dollar is due to excess demand and lack of supply, as well as America’s policy towards Iraq.”

 He explained that “the government is required to put pressure on the Fed to provide sufficient cash from the dollar in order to meet the increasing demand and eliminate the so-called parallel market.”

 During the current period, America has worked to destroy the Iraqi currency by imposing sanctions on Iraqi banks and banning the dollar under many pretexts, which in one way or another led to a severe financial crisis in the Iraqi markets.   link

CandyKisses:  Sulaymaniyah and Technical Universities join strike due to delayed salary payments

Baghdad Today – Sulaymaniyah

The Sulaymaniyah and Technical Universities in the governorate announced today, Sunday (October 8, 2023), that they have joined the departments on strike due to delayed payment of salaries.

The “Baghdad Today” correspondent said, “The Universities of Sulaymaniyah and Technical University announced their permanent strike due to the delay in disbursing employees’ salaries.”

Earlier, a number of government departments and institutions in Sulaymaniyah Governorate announced a strike from official working hours, in protest against the delay in distributing salaries.

The correspondent of “Baghdad Today” in the governorate stated, “A number of departments and institutions in Sulaymaniyah Governorate announced a strike from official working hours, due to the delay in distributing salaries to their employees, for the months of July and August.”

He continued, “It is expected that the strike will expand and include other departments in the coming days if salaries are further delayed.”

The Kurdistan Region, especially Sulaymaniyah Governorate, has been witnessing widespread protests and strikes for some time due to the delay in disbursing employees’ salaries.

The “Baghdad Today” correspondent in Sulaymaniyah Governorate reported earlier that a number of departments announced a strike from work, due to the delay in disbursing their salaries, noting that the departments are the Sarganar Water District and the Municipality District, and the strike includes the Sulaymaniyah and Chamchamal districts.

While health personnel in Sulaymaniyah Governorate joined the strike against the backdrop of delayed payment of salaries for the months of June and July. 

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Tishwash:  An Iraqi decision that workers’ wages be in dinars and not in dollars, and the Syrians are among them… Dr. Kanaan to Al-Watan: This will lead to a reduction in foreign transfers by up to 40 percent, and the Syrian government must intervene.

A senior official in the Central Bank of Iraq confirmed that the country will ban cash withdrawals and transactions in US dollars starting from January 1, 2024, with the aim of stopping the illegal use of about 50 percent of the $10 billion cash amount that Iraq imports annually from the Federal Reserve Board (the US Central Bank).

 They noted that this step comes within the framework of a broader campaign to stop the economy’s dependence on the dollar, after the population began to prefer the American currency over the dinar and to work to reduce the current inflation.

Within the framework of this decision and taking into account the proportion of Syrian workers present in Iraq, “Al-Watan” communicated with a number of workers in Baghdad and Erbil: Nour Fandi, an air conditioning and refrigeration maintenance worker in Erbil, explained in a special statement to “Al-Watan” that the condition of the contract concluded with the party receiving him was He must receive his wages in Iraqi dinars, equivalent to the US dollar, according to the rates of the Central Bank of Iraq, pointing out that his wages were paid in US dollars for the first two months of work before the issuance of the decision, and accordingly, after the issuance of the decision, his wages were equalized to the equivalent of the Iraqi dinar.

Fandi pointed out that the disaster occurred when he was surprised that his wages were calculated according to the Central Bank of Iraq’s pricing, the highest price of which was 1,320 Iraqi dinars per US dollar, while market prices varied beyond the official price by about 40 dollars, which is the rate of his monthly loss, in addition to the fact that It is difficult for him to transfer Iraqi dinars to his family in Syria, so he is forced to buy dollars on the black market because the ban on dealing prevents him from purchasing hard currency from the Central Bank of Iraq, thus reducing the percentage of remittances sent monthly.

Dima Ibrahim, a worker at a beauty center in Baghdad, explained in a statement to Al-Watan that the decision came after she was in Baghdad for two years, where her wages were in foreign currency, but about four months ago the values of wages and salaries were adjusted so that their wages were converted into Iraqi dinars, equivalent to the US dollar, similar to the riyal. Saudi Arabia and the Emirati dirham, pointing out that since the decision was issued, she has refrained from sending remittances to her family in Syria, due to the large difference in the transfer, adding that if the decision continues to be implemented, she will be committed to her contract, which expires in the first month of next year, and then leave Iraq because the work has become useless as a price for their exile. there.

Professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Damascus, Dr. in Monetary and Banking, Ali Kanaan, confirmed that the private sector deals in the Iraqi dinar at the equivalent of the US dollar for non-Iraqi foreign workers, pointing out that this decision will reduce the proportion of foreign workers in Iraq and will negatively affect workers, especially Syrians, in Iraq due to the difficulty Conversion and conjugation difference.

Dr. explained. Kanaan, in a special statement to Al-Watan, said that external transfers must be in foreign currencies, and therefore the worker there will be forced to buy foreign currencies and re-transfer them into Syria, thus losing more than 40 percent of his salary, which will also reflect negatively on external transfers and lead to their decline, in addition to manipulation. What will happen between the employer, the worker, and the bank.

For example, instead of the Syrian worker receiving 1,000 Iraqi dinars, his wage must be set at 1,700 Iraqi dinars, so that the 700 dinars are the difference in conversion into hard currency. This rarely happens because it will also cause a loss to the employer.

Regarding the impact of the decision on foreign transfers from Iraq to Syria, Dr. confirmed. Kanaan said that if the decision is implemented, the volume of remittances will decrease by about 40 percent, and Iraq will also witness an exodus of Syrian workers and the search for more profitable opportunities in other places, stressing that this step and this decision are essentially monetary, but they have a political dimension, which is reducing the number of foreign workers in Iraq, and it does not They have nothing to do with fighting inflation at all, and this decision is an unjust measure for the Syrians and violates all international agreements signed between the two countries to respect Syrian workers.

Dr. revealed. Kanaan said that the value of Iraq’s oil exports today amounted to 150 billion dollars, while the proportion of Syrian labor wages therein amounted to 700 million dollars. Comparing the two amounts, this step is not monetaryally beneficial for fighting inflation, by calculating labor wages in Iraqi dinars. Rather, they must take more feasible monetary steps.

Dr. called. Kanaan urged the Syrian Foreign Ministry to submit a request to withdraw this decision, because it violates the agreements signed between the two countries regarding paying taxes, transferring profits, protecting investments, protecting workers, and achieving stability for their Syrian workers.

It is worth noting that, last July, the United States prevented 14 Iraqi banks from conducting transactions in dollars, as part of a broader campaign against the illegal use of the dollar. link