Iraqis protest against dollar high exchange rate
Demonstrations in front of the Central Bank of Iraq in the capital, Baghdad, to protest against the high exchange rate of the U.S. dollar. Photo: Al-Arabiya News
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi media reported that demonstrations took place in front of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) in the capital, Baghdad, to protest against the high exchange rate of the U.S. dollar.
The demonstrations, that media outlets described as massive, took place amid tight security measures.
Hundreds of people from the central and southern governorates arrived in the Iraqi capital to take part in the protests.
The protesters demanded the Iraqi government to intervene urgently to limit the rise in the exchange rate against the U.S. dollar.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, sparked controversy by reassigning Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq as a governor of the CBI, more than two years after he was dismissed from the same position due to the financial failures that occurred during his tenure in the previous period.
Al-Alaq had held the position for about six years, between 2014 and 2020. After his appointment, Al-Alaq pledged to announce a timeline to return the exchange rate to normal.
Al-Sudani’s decision to reassign Al-Alaq came in anticipation of protests called for by Iraqi activists in front of the CBI, to denounce the crisis of the declining value of the Iraqi dinar against the U.S. dollar.
The exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the local currency recently reached 1610 dinars per dollar, while the official exchange rate remained 1459 dinars per dollar, with a gap between the two exchange rates of more than 10 percent.