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Baghdad quiet, dollar to drive new money system
As Baghdad turned near-normal, and almost all of Iraq has come under the control of US-led forces, arrangements are being made to have a dollar-driven multilple currency system. The dinar, issued by the Saddam Hussein government, would also be valid tender until a new unit is introduced, two US officials said on Wednesday. The two officials are assessing the economy for the US-led administration that will rule Iraq for a while. They said the new administration would start to pay Iraqi civil servants a $20 per head emergency payment and could repeat such payments as necessary. "This is not an issue of dollarising the economy, but to get money into desperate peoples' hands," one of the officials said. As the previous government had failed to publish any statistics or records, their best estimate was that 1.5 million to 2.5 million Iraqis worked for the government. The total population is estimated at 26 million. "We're talking about most working people. They will be entitled to get an emergency payment of $20, in dollars," one official said. Ten percent of the population works for the gummint? No wonder Iraq's such a hothouse of innovation... Payments will go to Iraqis who are able to identify themselves as civil servants. The United States will partly use $1.7 billion in seized Iraqi assets for the $20 emergency payments, for salaries once they resume and to build up foreign exchange reserves. The officials said the introduction of more dollars into the economy and its use with other currencies â the euro and the currencies of neighbouring Syria, Jordan and Kuwait among others â was not likely to cause a cycle of inflation, even if the value of the old Iraq currency fell. Like to waste paper levels? Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-16 |
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