Iraqi Parliamentary Finance Committee Reveals New Details about Central Bank Governor's Hosting Session

Shafaq News/ A member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament revealed new details and the "backstage" of the recent hosting session with the Central Bank Governor, Ali al-Allaq.

Ahmed Mazhar al-Jubouri, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, told Shafaq News Agency, "The hosting session discussed the recent U.S. sanctions on Iraqi banks, in addition to the exchange rate file, and the decline of the dinar amid the dollar's rise."

Al-Jubouri added, "The talk of the Central Bank Governor during the hosting session does not bode well, and the solutions proposed by the Central Bank regarding the crisis are merely formal." He confirmed, "The bank will lose $140 million monthly due to the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury on Iraqi banks."

"The money that the bank will lose was previously sold by the Central Bank to the banks recently hit by sanctions," adding that, "The sanctions will negatively reflect on the market, and the dollar exchange rate against the dinar will continue to rise in the coming days."

Earlier in the day, the Parliamentary Finance Committee hosted Central Bank Governor Ali al-Allaq to discuss the banking sector, the rise in dollar exchange rates against the dinar, and the reasons for U.S. sanctions imposed on a number of Iraqi banks.

The U.S. dollar exchange rates continued to rise against the Iraqi dinar on Monday in the markets of Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, with the closing of the exchange, touching 154 thousand dinars for every $100.

This increase began after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 14 Iraqi banks on Wednesday, July 19, in a campaign aimed at preventing the dollar from reaching Iran.