The General Secretariat of Iraq’s Council of Ministers has ruled out the replacement of the currency or cancellation of three zeros “at this stage”, and it is seeking to raise the value of the dinar against the dollar.
The Secretary General of the Council of Ministers said that the project to replace the currency, dropping the three zeros, was discussed but is not a priority for the government at this time being, and “there is no real problem in this field”.
He noted that replacing currency requires “large adjustments”, and the process of withdrawing the existing money is an enormous and difficult task.
He stressed that some have the mistaken impression that deleting the zeros will “reduce the size of the money in circulation as a block”, but in fact it does not reduce it even by 1 percent, and while the government believes that the change of currency is a good thing under appropriate conditions, it is not a priority.
The Secretary-General said the dinar should be stronger than it is now, and implied that an exchange rate of 1,000 dinars to the dollar — a rise of about 15 percent — might be sustainable.
