Dinar Observer Daily

Clare – Dinar Guru  Article: “Al-Sistani: The beginning of the month of Ramadan is today, Tuesday”   

Sandy Ingram – Dinar Guru  OPEC+ members agreed to extend voluntary production cuts by 2.2 million barrels per day in the second quarter of the year…Iraq is losing anywhere from $2 to $3 billion a month in OPEC’s volunteer program to cut oil production.

Militia Man – Dinar Guru  Article:  “Economics website: A new application enhances investment movement in Iraq”  Quote:  “...The new index, called (RSISX Total Return), compares currency exchange rate changes and the returns achieved.”  It is not surprising they have a new RSISX Total Returns index for currency exchange rate changes. With Al-Sudani’s government mention of 1.32 dinars to the dollar yesterday and then today we see that there is talk of smaller denominations. Small enough to make change for 250 notes…Put all that with this new index being launched suggests for me, is that they are ready for change to come and not just in the exchange rate but…as in fils…This is another good sign Iraq is opening up to the world in a big way.

Pimpy – Dinar Guru  Can the Iraqi dinar get as valuable as a Kuwait dinar?  Of course it could.  There’s a lot of hurdles there.  Are they [Iraq] going to be reinstated?  No.  Two different stories.  The invasion and occupation [of Kuwait] was about 7 months…The Kuwait government was still able to do business as usual outside of Kuwait, use the money they had in their reserve fund.  Iraq did not have that, not to mention the fact that Saddam Hussein… printed the hell out of the Iraqi dinar causing the value of the Iraqi dinar to drop…You can’t compare Iraq to Kuwait because there’s no comparisons…

Mountain Goat – Dinar Guru This Saturday I had my normal call to my CBI contact in Iraq and was told they too are waiting for the signal to go ahead with the Project to Delete the Zeros. This is the next step. Everything from the Iraqi side has been cleared but the US Treasury has not yet given their assurance of the reinstatement once the process moves to the next step. The CBI now wants this in writing and a formal document stating the approvals. They are waiting for this to come.  …we know that what has been accomplished in the de-dollarization process is hard to undo at that point…So, there is no turning back and they must move ahead.

Paulette – Dinar Guru  Sistani set…3/12/24 as the first day of Ramadan…Note, IMO, Kuwait Reinstated their currency during Ramadan in 1991…therefore, it appears that it very well can be possible to see Iraq change their currency structure during Ramadan.

Militia Man – Dinar Guru  This is fascinating because this is coming from the Iraqi government today in the same context of Al-Sudani.  Article quote:   “The Iraq government is currently weighing the question of changing the currency so that the official cost of a US dollar will be 1.32 Iraqi dinars instead of 1320.  Implementing such a decision is likely to significantly increase Al-Sudani’s popularity.”  You think!?  Bring the purchasing power of $0.76 – that’s what it equates to…deleting the zeros just like we’ve been talking about.

BGG ~ There have now been numerous OP ED pieces done on this bit of news. The article was published yesterday & I am suspicious of it’s veracity and timing. It always seems to get tossed around during election season.

Furthermore, how they decide to get from 1320:1 to 1.32:1 is another story entirely. So, it’s all in the – “tale of the tape”. Everyone will get all excited, when in reality… even if this is a legit move – it could still go 20 different ways.

Pimpy – Dinar Guru  Does Iraq have the ability to be similar to what Kuwait has?  Of course it does, but they got a long way to go…When I first started talking about the Iraqi dinar, I thought Iraq is going to be just like Kuwait.  Until you actually start really digging into it and researching you find out they’re nothing alike…

Samson – Dinar Guru  Article: “The Iraqi government is currently weighing the question of changing the currency so that the official cost of a US dollar will be 1.32 Iraqi dinars instead of 1,320 dinars. Implementing such a decision is likely to significantly increase Al Sudani’s popularity”

Moutain Goat – Dinar Guru   Article:  “THE NEW IRAQI OIL LAW UNDERMINES THE DREAM OF KURDISH INDEPENDENCE”   Quote:  “On February 21, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government must hand over “all oil and non-oil revenues” to Baghdad.”   This is a solid start to getting the Oil and Gas Law completed and to parliament for a vote. This must be completed to finish a Constitutional requirement to fully implement the new 2005 Iraqi Constitution. This was told to me a decade ago that this is critical to normalizing Iraq.  So this is all excellent news for us today…

Pimpy – Dinar Guru You can still see Iraq is taking the steps necessary to deal with corruption, update all their systems so they can keep better track of things and continue down the path to joining the international community…Iraq has taken all the steps necessary…It’s looking very good for Iraq as long as they stay on this path…

Clare – Dinar Guru  Article:  “Advisor to the Prime Minister: The stability of the exchange rate gives relative stability to gold prices”  Quote:  “The economic advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, confirmed the relative stability of gold prices in Iraq due to the value of the dinar… What determines gold prices today are the international gold exchanges, noting that the stability of the official Iraqi dinar exchange rate to the dollar gives relative stability to gold prices.”

Nader – Dinar Guru   Article quote:  “The Iraqi government and the Central Bank are dissatisfied with the nature of the US treasury’s dealings with Iraqi banks…There is an effort to lift the sanctions…”  They need to take off the sanctions of Iraq IQD.

Sandy Ingram – Dinar Guru  IMF’s report on Iraq’s economy.  This is a critical report dealing with Iraq’s…financial future…Iraq could easily be on the path to a higher exchange rate depending on how the country responds to the IMF recommendations...Iraq’s non-oil economy is expected to continue to its growth in 2024 after expanding by 6% in 2023.  The IMF also reported Iraq’s economy is projected to rebound in 2024…Iraq needs more sustainable non-oil growth according to…the IMF mission.

Militia Man – Dinar Guru  They’re not going to…build a country at 1310.  The math doesn’t work.  I don’t care how many times people try to figure that out.  Think about it for a second…1310  dinars to buy a pencil but if you can buy 100 pencils for one dinar because the dinar is worth $3.00, $4.00 or more. How many pencils can you buy?  Think about that in bricks, steel, sewer systems, infrastructure, lighting, military operations, airplanes, guns and weapons, grocery stores at 1310 as opposed to 2, 3, 4 bucks.  They specifically bring up and invoke ‘previous eras’ not me.  I just report that…

Pimpy – Dinar Guru  What is the difference between a mixed economy and a market economy?  In a mixed economy the government plays a more active role in regulating and controlling certain aspects of the economy while in a market economy, the government’s role is limited to maintaining a level playing field and protecting property rights…We know right now Iraq has a mixed economy…[with] a lot of state ran businesses…

Clare – Dinar Guru  Article:  “With its rise locally… Iraq’s gold reserves were revealed”  Quote:  “The economic advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, revealed the size of the Iraqi gold reserve at the Central Bank of Iraq…Monetary gold falls within the diversification of the monetary authority’s investment portfolio, and the numbers indicate that it exceeds 132 tons of monetary gold and within the safe range of reserves.”

Pimpy – Dinar Guru  Deleting the zeros off the currency will not change the price on the ISX [Iraqi Stock Exchange].  Changing the exchange rate will have an impact on the ISX.

Clare – Dinar Guru  Article: “Central Bank: Inflation in Iraq decreased to 4%“

Sandy Ingram – Dinar Guru  Iraq’s stock market – A joke to many, a profit for others.  Article:  “Nasdaq signs New Agreement with Iraq Stock Exchange”.  This new Iraqi dinar stock market is now electronic and instead of taking three weeks for a transaction to complete it takes only five minutes.

Militia Man – Dinar Guru  Everybody realized they have all these income streams.  You realize it’s not just going to be oil.   The non-oil revenues, tourism, agriculture, liquid natural gas, natural resources, all those are going to be part of the future and so that’s really powerful.

Paulette – Dinar Guru   Community Comment:  “…The rate doesn’t matter but “freedom of movement of capital” is important.  That is Article 8 compliance.”  They cannot be Article 8 compliant if the country is functioning under a MCP.  A MCP [Multiple Currency Practices] includes a parallel rate of greater than 2% of the official rate by IMF definition.  Saleh said last year that the parallel rate is “REQUIRED” to be 2% or less of the official rate…This 2% or less needs to be maintained for a period of 90 days.  The parallel rate is still around 14% difference.

Pimpy – Dinar Guru  If we went from where it is now at .00077 all the way up to $3.22, you’re looking at a 4,180% increase in value.  The largest amount a currency ever revalued occurred January 1, 1948 when the Chinese government decided to revalue its currency the yuan as part of the efforts to stabilize the economy and recover from the devastation of World War II…The government set the new exchange rate at $1 US for every 1.4 yuan which was a 46.9% appreciation – The largest increase in value we have ever seen in the world is 46.9% in value…So Iraq is going to smash the old record of 46.9% increase in value by 4133%?  Not going to happen.  

Breitling – Dinar Guru   Question:  “The difference between Kuwaiti revaluation and the Iraqi dinar – what’s the difference?”  It’s a completely different model…Kuwaiti got invaded. Saddam Hussain stole the printing press, the Kuwaiti version of the Treasury.  Stole everything…Iraqi dinar was completely different.  It was planned.  They knew the old Iraqi currency was going to collapse.  We injected their economy with dollars and euros.  That’s when they took the old dinars off the streets and introduced the new dinar you and I have.  It’s a completely different model.  There’s no way to compare.

Pimpy – Dinar Guru  Does Iraq have the potential to have a more valuable currency than Kuwait?  Yeah absolutely…They have way more resources.  As a matter of fact…Iraq is in the top 5 worldwide for the most resources.  So, yeah, they have the  potential to be there.  There just not there yet…They have a lot more things to export than Kuwait does but they have to get past  these hurdles.  I think they will. 

Militia Man – Dinar Guru  They’re not stopping.  We don’t have a date and rate but we can see the progress is before us…They’re gearing to move Iraq to the private sector and to open up to the world…There’s going to be money to be made and  there’s going to be a lot of it…    

Samson – Dinar Guru  Article:  “Iraq is the fourth in the Arab world and the 30th in the world in the reserves of Yellow Resonant” [Gold]

Paulette – Dinar Guru   Question:  “I thought they met all the requirements [to join the WTO]?”  All the articles say they have legislation that needs to be passed and the next meeting is in the “middle of the year.

Sandy Ingram – Dinar Guru   Vietnam Dong (VND):  The reason for such a low rate is the transition from a centralized economy to a market-based one…We learned [Vietnam had] over 3 million international arrivals in the first 2 months of 2024, an increase of 68.7% year-on-year according to data released by The General Statistics Office.

Pimpy – Dinar Guru    We’re staying grounded…about the possibility of getting a huge payday.  Remember it’s only a possibility, just like there’s a possibility they could re-denominate before they change the exchange rate…Re-denomination has nothing to do with the exchange rate.  We want the exchange rate to change, not the Iraqi currency to delete the zeros.  We don’t want that to happen…Stop rooting for the deletion of the zeros.  You don’t want that to happen.