Dollar seen surpassing 150K Dinars as Kurdistan oil proposal emerges
Shafaq News- Al-Sulaimaniyah
The US dollar exchange rate could rise to 150,000 Iraqi dinars per $100, the spokesperson for Al-Sulaimaniyah currency exchange market, Jabbar Koran, expected on Monday, citing increased demand for foreign currency and insufficient dollar injections by the Central Bank of Iraq.
The exchange rate has already climbed in recent days, exceeding 148,000 dinars per $100.
In remarks to Shafaq News, Koran explained that the situation is compounded by declining global oil prices, noting that “these factors reduce Iraq’s ability to supply the Central Bank with sufficient funds if oil prices continue to fall globally while domestic spending increases.”
He also pointed out that Iraq is unable to boost oil exports due to production quotas set by the OPEC+ alliance, a group of oil-producing countries that coordinates output levels to manage global supply.
As an alternative, Koran proposed investing surplus crude oil by converting it into refined products such as gas and gasoline, then exporting them to neighboring countries, including Turkiye and Syria.
“One of the main obstacles to increasing domestic production is the limited number of refineries in Iraq,” he said, calling for greater use of existing refineries in the Kurdistan Region.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Iraq’s federal budget collected more than 82.377 trillion dinars ($62.9B) from January to August 2025. Official data showed that oil revenues reached 73.822 trillion dinars ($56.5B), accounting for 90% of total income, while non-oil revenues stood at 8.555 trillion dinars ($6.5B).
