Shafaq News/ Washington is impeding Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani's endeavors to reverse the Iraqi dinar's devaluation in the 2023 budget bill, lawmaker Fadhel Mawat said on Monday.
"The US dollar depreciation is a result of the US interventions to dissuade Prime Minister al-Sudani's from restoring the US dollar's former exchange rate against the Iraqi dinar," the leading figure in the State of Law Alliance told Shafaq News Agency.
"The cabinet seeks to address the devaluation issue in the 2023 budget bill," he said, "the expected exchange rate would be 137,500 Iraqi dinars to 100 US dollars."
In December 2020, Iraq's Central Bank devalued the Iraqi dinar by over 20 percent in response to a severe liquidity crisis brought on by low oil prices, a measure that sparked public outrage as the government struggles to cover its expenses.
The new rates represent a dramatic reduction from the previous official rate of 1,182 IQD. It is the first reduction in exchange rates that the Iraqi government has made in decades.
The Central Bank set the new rate for the dinar, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, at 1,450 IQD when selling to the Iraqi Finance Ministry. The dinar will be sold to the public at 1,470 IQD and to other banks at 1,460 IQD.
