A Fistful of Dinars: Demystifying Iraq's Dollar Auction
A Fistful of Dinars: Demystifying Iraq's Dollar Auction
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The Central Bank of Iraq's (CBI) dollar auction has been a continuous source of controversies and conspiracy theories. The main accusations facing it include: the siphoning of dollars to Iran, money laundering, and currency smuggling.
Missing from this melee is an understanding of the economy's key structural imbalances: mainly that the Iraqi economy is wholly dependent on oil export revenues, and demand for goods and services is met through imports handled by a largely informal private sector.
The skinny
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