6-21-2015 *Kaperoni

[Vixen]

6-21-2015 *Kaperoni ~[Just curious as to your thoughts on all these American companies being awarded multi million dollar contracts in Iraq for various products and services.] With Iraq having no free market economy, nobody is going into Iraq until the laws and banking system are in place to support it. If your talking about oil contracts, yes companies are working in Iraq and paid in US dollars. Iraq though as of late has had issues paying these companies and some are accepting oil now as payment.

6-21-2015 *Kaperoni ~Anyone see that Iraq expects a credit rating next month? [see definition of "Sovereign Credit Rating" in part 2 of 2] I did a bit of looking into this... The credit rating is important because Iraq wants to sell bonds to cover the deficit. If anyone would want them. ...the dinar is convertible now. Since they are in Article XIV, it does not prevent them from trading or convertibility. That being said, many merchants, and banks refuse to deal with them under that condition...its really a choice by the bank or merchant if they are willing to engage with Iraq while the CBI is under Article XIV. That would change if the CBI met the conditions to move to IMF Article VIII...Which is the international standard of acceptance. Banks, merchants would welcome transactions, etc. once they meet that standard. That being said, Dr. Bakri, a very well known economist in Iraq stated to me that currency reform would occur before the CBI would ever meet Article VIII. So Article VIII is not something we necessarily need. Hopefully we will see the dinar appreciate long before the CBI moves to Article VIII.