While a quarter of the country’s residents live below the poverty line, the dollar exchange rate soars against the Iraqi dinar and hundreds of citizens go out to demonstrate in front of the central bank in the capital Baghdad
Hundreds of demonstrators in Baghdad, the capital, in front of the Iraqi Central Bank as a protest against the increase in the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, which caused an increase in the prices of goods and consumer products in the country.
The traders in Iraq complain about a recession in the markets. Al-Sharq Alawest newspaper reported that another reason for the protests is the appointment of Ali Al-Alaq, governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, which reminds the citizens of Iraq of the events of 2018, in which seven billion Iraqi dinars disappeared as a result of rainwater seeping into the Central Bank in Baghdad, according to the bank, when Al-Alaq served as governor .
The drop of the local currency in relation to the dollar puts the Iraqi government in a dilemma, since a quarter of the country’s residents live below the poverty line, according to a test conducted by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning.