Iraqi dinar ranks among 2026's worst-performing currencies
Shafaq News- Baghdad
The Iraqi dinar has lost 14.2% of its value against the US dollar since the start of 2026. That is the second-steepest decline among the currencies tracked by Asharq Bloomberg, Bloomberg's Arabic-language service, behind only the Libyan dinar, which fell 15.6%.
Most of the loss came this month, when Iraq devalued its currency. On Oct. 7, the government raised the official selling price of the dollar to 1,520 dinars from 1,320, a devaluation of about 13% against the dollar. Bloomberg reported that the move followed disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which cut Iraq's oil exports, the main source of state revenue.
A weaker dinar brings in more local currency for every dollar the state earns from oil, which helps it cover public salaries. Mahmoud Dagher, a former director at the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), told Shafaq News that this was the main purpose of the decision. The CBI's foreign reserves fell from $97.4 billion at the end of 2025 to $81.5 billion at the end of August, according to the bank's data.
On the parallel market, the dollar has stayed above the new official rate. It traded at around 168,900 dinars per $100 in Baghdad on Wednesday, according to a Shafaq News market survey, compared with the official 152,000.
Elsewhere on the list, the Turkish lira was third with a 13.3% decline. The Ugandan shilling and Egyptian pound followed with losses of 12.7% and 11.6%, respectively. The Ghanaian cedi fell 10.3%, while the Romanian leu and Chilean peso lost 8.6% and 8.3%. The Moroccan dirham, the only other Arab currency on the list, fell 6.7%.
The list did not include the Iranian rial, which has fallen sharply amid the war and international sanctions on Tehran.
Read more: Experts: Iraq dollar gap reflects limited dollar access
