Hello Dinar Readers!
I’m very pleased to present an exclusive interview done by one of our awesome forum moderators, Ward Welch. He was able to correspond with foreign correspondent Raber Aziz and get the answers below.
Enjoy!
Interview with Raber Aziz:
“removing of the three zeros from the Iraqi Dinar and its effects”
By Ward Welch
April 12, 2012
Ward Welch: Mr. Aziz, thank you very much for taking my questions today.
For years now we’ve been hearing about the CBI’s plan to “remove the zeros” from the Iraqi Dinar and equalize the value of the IQD with the other major currencies of the world, including the American Dollar.
With the success of the recent Arab summit in Baghdad, and the imminent release of Iraq from the United Nations sanctions (Chapter 7), what are your thoughts concerning this subject?
Raber Aziz: I think the removing of the zeros will have its own benefits and consequences for the country alike. It will be good for Iraq to remove the zeros because this address; when the Iraqi dinar is strong in the face of US dollars it will help keep inflation down as much as possible. It will also facilitate, for Iraq, economic cooperation with the international banks as it will increase the international confidence and credibility of it the new Iraqi Dinar. Also, it will reduce the size of the bank notes in circulation and will simplify Iraq’s payment system.
But the having a new and strong Dinar is expected to have consequences as well. one of the consequences will be money laundering. The CBI has said the zero-removing process, which is expected to take place in September as it has announced, will see the bank re-print 30tr dinars ($26bn) and the process of switching currency will last a full year where both the old and new currencies will be dealt in the market. This is too long a period and could witness lots of money laundering, as well as fraud.
Ward Welch: With Iraq taking its place in the world as a completely sovereign nation and a major power in the Arab world, how can Iraq continue to trade with the world using a highly undervalued currency? Certainly the impetus of the GOI and the CBI must be to rectify this condition very soon or risk losing billions of dollars (trillions of IQD) in foreign investments in Iraq.
Raber Aziz: Iraq cannot continue to trade with the world using the current undervalued currency. Iraq’s current money, printed after the 2003 US-led war, is 150 times bigger in quantity than the Swiss edition of the Iraqi Dinar used in the country. Iraq’s smallest bill used in the markets is the 250 Dinar bill (approximately US$0.2) and this is definitely not a good currency for the country that sells over 2 million bpd of oil (over 6 billion US Dollar per day). Besides, Iraq is planning to increase its oil production to reach at least 6 million bpd in the next few years and ultimately 12 million bpd. That’s even three times and six times the size of Iraq’s current revenues. This will mean Iraq’s annual revenues will hit US$210 in the coming days and over US$400 billion ultimately. And for this, Iraq requires a currency with strong value in the world market.
Ward Welch: With this new economic power in hand, will this increase the desire of Kurdistan to gain complete independence and sovereignty?
Raber Aziz: The desire of the Kurds to become independent is, and has always been, there with or without the economic power in hand. Every single Kurd dreams of an independent Kurdistan state. Though economic boom is a factor for any nation to proclaim independence, in the case of Kurdistan there are other factors that determine whether the Kurds want to be independent from Iraq or not. The first of these factors will be an international recognition of a Kurdish state. Who is ready to recognize a Kurdish state in north of Iraq? Kurds first need guarantees that if they proclaim independence their state will be recognized on an international level and be protected by some of the world’s super powers, among them the US. Another factor will be the Kurds’ relations with the regional nations. Kurdistan, I mean the greater Kurdistan that spans Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, and the Kurdish part of Iraq as well, is a landlocked country. Kurdistan cannot survive without strong friendly relations with these countries in case they wanted to become independent.
Ward Welch: How will this rebirth of economic power in Iraq effect the relationship between the political blocks? (Will the new wealth encourage them to put religious, secular, and tribal differences aside and truly work together?)
Raber Aziz: I don’t think that it will result in the political blocs putting their differences aside. Iraq’s Prime Minister Mr Nouri al-Maliki who has been controlling power over the past few years has unfortunately been playing on a very sensitive cord, namely sectarianism. He has appointed many of his Shiite Dawa Party officials as ministers or high-ranking officials in the government and has been running many other ministerial and senior positions like the ministries of interior, defense, national security as acting minister despite him being the PM. He has been rejecting candidates of the rival al-Iraqiya list, the main Sunni bloc in Iraq, for the empty ministries each time with a different excuse since the end of 2010 when the political blocs finally, after an 8-month impasse came to a power-sharing deal, in Erbil, to form the new cabinet. And, last year, his Shiite dominated government started removing Sunni academics on charges of belonging to the former Baath Party. They detained about 600 former Iraqi army officials on charges of planning a coup by the end of 2011 when the last US troop left Iraq, and also started hunting down other top Sunni leaders in the country on terror charges, among them VP Tariq al-Hashimi for involvement in 150 armed attacks. Therefore, it is not easy to undo these, and thus the sectarian disputes which are in fact the core of the political disputes as well, will remain.
Ward Welch: Thank you very much for your valuable time sir.
Raber Y. Aziz is a Kurdish journalist and blogger from Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish Region. He works for AKnews as English News Editor and is formerly their Managing Editor. You can follow his blog at http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/
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Great job, k98!
Spring Update on the IQD, Warka Wire Transfers and Warka Bank’s Insolvency issues
This message is meant to be absorbed and then forwarded to anyone you know who has invested in the IQD via a Warka Bank Account and especially to anyone who might be considering wiring USD from their Warka Account back to a Stateside Account.
Anyone that now finds ………. (comment clipped. Please post full articles on DinarVets, not as a comment on articles here.)
PAFH,
I have a Warka account that I have not been able to access since my password expired on the anniversary of opening the account. I have had no success in obtaining a reponse from Warka on this issue at any level thus far. Do you have any suggestions, or have I lost my investment in Warka?
Thanks,
Rick
Hi Rick, I see you are using an “aol” email account. I would suggest emailing them from a gmail account, those get better responses for some reason.
Great job k98! You the man!
who is he who is mr aziz and wat he is where he is
read the last paragraph! it tells who he is. duh
ITS THE IDEA I KNOW YOU DIDNT GET IT ITS OK
Good job Woody!
“…country that sells over 2 million bpd of oil (over 6 billion US Dollar per day).”
I am not seeing how 2 million barrels a day at even $100 is 6 billion US dollars per day. I see it as $200,000,000 per day.
Anyone help explain?
Thanks
And we would not assume the US is the only buyer.
I believe they are talking about 6 Billion per year.
speculators buy the oil and resell it.100 is what they/specs sell it for not what they pay
hope it clears things up for you
good job k98 this is whit i am looking for.
Awesome
Thanks K98
Good questions and good answers, thanks K98
Thanks K98! Sounds good to me!
It’s all a game that will last a lot longer than most of us!
I still don’t understand how removing the zeros works, Does that change the amount that someone owns?
I don’t want to believe I have an amount and then find out that I don’t.
Thank you
We’re lucky that we have you to take care and keep us informed….thank you
So, now according to Mr. Aziz, we are not expecting a change in IQD value until “September as it has announced”. Can anyone confirm this; and who is Mr. Aziz?
I thought Shibibi was removing old currency 25000 bills and now there are going to reprint 30 tri again. What s up with that
Thanks for your work k98. It appears that the Iraqi’s constant religious conflict hinders the progress of Iraq. That’s nothing new.
Go inflation! That should put some pressure them. Thanks for your post.
Excellent Info K98….. Looks as though it’s just a matter of time.
Thanks
Thanks k98 great job, great questions and some good answers keep up the good work. Love , Peace and Prayers.
Great job, Woody! Thank you.
Well done! Short and to the point. He is correct in saying that these problems are not going away, no matter what happens. Most of the problems are related to a very personal religious belief. Politics and religion are not separated, but joined together. Sharia Law and the Koran cannot be separated from their life, and what they believe about their religion determines how they think politically.
Thanks for the interview K98.
I read in the article above that “the zero removing process will start in September as it was announced”. Did anyone else notice this… September.
It is in the lower portion of the 1st response from Raber Y Aziz.
Well, though this is a good news, I am curious to see how the RV will be handdled by the Iraqi officials come September. I am worry if the counterfeit of the Dinars and the problem to regulate the transition after RV get out-of-hand, we in the US who has our Dinars hatching under the mattress, how will it affect our conversion from IQD to the USD.
I appreciate articles like this one as it is actual information from two people who are in the midst of this investment (K98 as an investor and Mr. Aziz who lives this situation every day…thanks K98 and Adam for posting it.
Good Day
According to Aziz it has already been determined that they will remove the zero’s in September instead of revaluing their money at a higher rate. Did I read that right.
Dan
I think the oil production is still at 300 barrels daily. They can’t RV with any significant increase until they reduce the dinar circulation, and the imposed exchange rate that they intend to use is 1000 old dinars for 1 new and that means it will take 1000000 old dinars to get 1000 new dinars worth 1 dollar. In other words you’ll have 1000 dinars left worth $1,000 when, and if they do that subtle exchange rate, and that has to be done before they increase the value of the dinar, because they the don’t have enough money to cover the existing dinar with a trillion dinars in circulation. Were trying to get them up to leaving 100,000 new dinars with the investors in lieu just 1000 new dinars. Nothing significant can occur with the existing dinar until they implement the imposing exchange rate. Hope that helps you to understand whats going on with Shabibi. They don’t want to share with the investors over 1000 dinars, which is ridiculous. If you want a letter that were sending Shabibi let me know. It explains everything!
Hi Mark
I buy 25k dinar
say it goes $1 to 1dinar=$25k
I buy 500 dinar will that be $500 if it revaluved @ 1 to 1?
thanks for your help.
Paul
As the oil price increases to $200/barrel there will be a windfall of income for Iraq and a great increase in the value of the IRD. I am hoping for $15 per Dinar.
IF YOU ONLY KNEW THE POWER….
hummmm…thks.k98
Major thankies for the blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Awesome.
very enlighten. thanks k98
Well,done,thnk you ,