US dollar exchange rate remains steady in Baghdad, rises in Erbil

A currency exchange agent counts US dollars in a currency exchange shop in Basra, Iraq. Photo: Hussein Faleh/AFP Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The exchange rate for the US dollar against the Iraqi dinar remained stable on Wednesday in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and rose in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil. The US dollar exchange rate remained stable in Baghdad’s al-Kifah and al-Harithiya stock exchanges, reaching 1,678 Iraqi dinars throughout the day. The exchange rate in currency exchange shops in Baghdad ranged between 1,682.5 Iraqi dinars and 1,672.5 Iraqi dinars, Shafaq News reported. In Erbil, the US dollar exchange rate rose, fluctuating between 1,677 and 1,676 Iraqi dinars. US dollar exchange rates rose noticeably in the Baghdad and Erbil markets on October 7, following a cabinet’s decision to revalue the official rate of the local currency, causing turbulence and instability in the parallel market. Iraq officially depreciated its national currency, with the baseline dropping from about 1,300 Iraqi dinars to 1,500 dinars per US dollar. The Iraqi cabinet approved the structural adjustment, which marks a 14.5 percent decline compared to the previous official framework that had been in place since early 2023. Following the announcement, parallel market rates in Baghdad and Erbil soared, with exchange shops reporting market gains of more than 1,700 Iraqi dinars per US dollar.