ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US reiterates support for Iraq’s plans to implement international standards to combat money laundering and financial crimes, as well as modernizing the country’s financial system, read a joint statement from both governments on Wednesday.
“The United States welcomed the Iraqi government’s efforts to enact economic and monetary-policy reforms, modernize the financial and banking system, combat corruption, and prevent manipulation of the financial system,” read a statement from the Iraqi and American governments following a high level Iraqi delegation visit to D.C.
A high ranking Iraqi delegation led by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein met with an American government delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, where both sides discussed the different challenges facing Iraq’s economy and energy sector.
The joint statement added that the US reiterated support for Iraq’s efforts in protecting its banking system from “financial crimes, money laundering, and terrorist financing.”
The Iraqi delegation’s visit came following weeks of instability in the Iraqi market as the Iraqi dinar suffered from massive depreciation.
The currency lost nearly 20 percent of its value in recent months, attributed to corruption, smuggling dollars into Iran, and pressure from the United States.
The government managed to restore the value of the dinar after setting the exchange rate at 1,300 dinars to one dollar, the highest value the currency has seen since 2020.
Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, a phenomenon that the country’s current government has pledged to eliminate. Official figures published last year estimated that well over 400 billion dollars has gone missing from state coffers since former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown in 2003.
The crisis-hit country ranks 157 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.
An investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry in October concluded that $2.5 billion in tax funds were stolen from the General Commission of Taxes’ account at Baghdad's Rafidain Bank between September 2021 and August 2022, during the tenure of former finance minister Ali Allawi.
