Cancellation of “zeros” from Iraqi currency won’t solve Iraq’s economic crisis, expert says

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The cancellation of  “zeros” from the Iraqi currency, announced by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) won’t solve Iraq‘s current economic crisis, especially the problem of the deteriorated living standards and services in the country, according to the Banking Expert, Samir al-Nuseiry on Saturday.  “The process of cancelling the ‘zeros’ from the Iraqi currency won’t solve the economic crisis, suffered by Iraq, especially the downfall of the living standards, unemployment and deterioration of services in all fields,” Nuseiry told IraqiNews.com news agency.  The Central Bank of Iraq had announced last September its intention to cancel the 3 “zeros” from the end of the Iraqi dinar currency in 2013, stating that the process would ease down the inflation, calling on Iraqi citizens to use their own (dinar) currency, instead of the US dollar.  “The process of cancelling the ‘zeros’ from the Iraqi currency shall lead to  cut short the cash size, thing that shall have its direct impact on the basic salaries, shares, bonds and prices,” Nuseiry said, adding that “such measure would make any citizen feel poor, as he who has 10 million Iraqi dinars, for example, won’t possess more than 10,000 dinars from same, thing that would lead to undermine consumption and thus have its passive impact on the economic situation in the country as a whole.”  Noteworthy is that the Advisor of Iraq‘s Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Abdul-Hussein al-Anbaki, had criticized the plan for the cancellation of  ‘zeros’ from the Iraqi currency, considering it as “the largest corruption process in the history of Iraq, “because Mafias of currency fabrication will be prepared for changing the distorted currency with a new currency, along with elements who lean towards currency laundering would pump trillions (t) of Iraqi dinars for their transformation.