BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of protesters gathered Wednesday near the central bank in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, angered by the recent devaluation of the Iraqi dinar and the difficulty of getting the government to take steps to stabilize the currency.
The mostly young protesters piled up amid a heavy security presence, many carrying the Iraqi flag and banners with slogans. One slogan read: “Politicians are the ones who cover up the monetary corruption of the banks. “
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Monday accepted the resignation of the country’s central bank governor, Mustafa Ghaleb Mukheef, following a week-long fall in the Iraqi dinar. Mukheef, on the job since 2020, replaced by Muhsen al-Allaq as interim governor.
The dinar hit new lows last Friday, reaching around 1,670 per dollar. The coin has lost nearly 7% of its price since mid-November. The official rate is 1,470 dinars for $1.
On Wednesday, the street price hovered around 1,610 per dollar.
Some Iraqi politicians have blamed the fall on U. S. Treasury measures.
USA. The U. S. exercises significant control over Iraq’s supply of dollars, as Iraq’s foreign exchange reserves are held through the U. S. Federal Reserve. U. S. dollar market banks under suspicion of money laundering.
In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, dozens more people demonstrated in front of the Central Bank, denouncing the fall of the Lebanese pound, which began in 2019. The price of the pound hit a new low last Thursday, trading at 50,000 per dollar. , as the country’s deeply divided parliament was unable to elect a president for the eleventh time.
Until 2019, the Lebanese currency was pegged to the dollar at a rate of 1500 pounds to the dollar. This is still the official rate, but in practice, almost all transactions are made at the black market rate.
Meanwhile, five European countries are investigating Lebanon’s central bank governor, Riad Salameh, who remains in office, on allegations of public laundering in Europe. Switzerland opened an investigation for the first time two years ago, followed by France, Germany, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
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Associated Press editor Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.