CBI Governor: We have mechanisms in place to guarantee dollar provision and are closely monitored

INA-  BAGHDAD


Ali Al-Alaq, the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), declared on Wednesday that all financial transfers are auditable, but he also pointed out that the increase in exchange rates is unrelated to the drop in oil prices.  

"The Central Bank provides dollars at the official rate for all commercial and personal channels, travellers, and all types of operations that represent legitimate activities, operations, and requests," Al-Alaq said to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

He emphasized the need to "focus on the amount of sale carried out by the Central Bank at the official rate and dollar seekers, whether they are traders, importers, individuals or travellers," noting that "any price outside the country is a price that only indicates abnormal operations that try to deviate from the official and legal system and the correct fundamentalist channels." 

"This is a major shift in external transfers where they were previously audited at a later stage and today all transfers are not carried out and are not implemented until after undergoing the audit process," he said, pointing out that "methods have been developed for each channel that secure the provision of dollars on the one hand and a very large amount of control to verify the safety of prior operations before their implementation."

"The decline in the price of oil has nothing to do with the rise in the exchange rate because Iraq has foreign currency reserves, which enables it to defend the exchange rate," he said.