US dollar exchange rate increases in Baghdad, Erbil
A currency exchange agent counts US dollars at his company in Iraq’s southern city of Basra. Photo: Hussein Faleh/AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The US dollar exchange rate against the Iraqi dinar increased in Baghdad and the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, on Thursday with the closure of the two main stock exchanges in the country.
The US dollar exchange rate rose with the closure of Baghdad’s Al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya stock exchanges, where the US dollar exchange rate reached 1522.5 dinars after it was 1518 dinars on Thursday morning.
The exchange rate in currency exchange shops in Baghdad ranged between 1532.5 dinars and 1512.5 dinars, Shafaq News reported.
In Erbil, the US dollar exchange rate ranged between 1519 dinars and 1518 dinars.
The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) announced last February that it started applying the new exchange rate of the US dollar, which is 1,300 dinars against one US dollar.
The previous official exchange rate was 1450 dinars to one US dollar, which was being exchanged in the parallel market at a rate of 1550 dinars.
In January 2023, the exchange rate of the US dollar against the local currency reached 1610 dinars, while the official exchange rate remained 1450 dinars per dollar, with a gap between the two exchange rates of more than 10 percent.