ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Trade between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey has dropped by at least 70 percent as a result of the deadly earthquake and instability in the value of the Iraqi dinar, the administration of Iraq’s main border crossing with Turkey announced on Saturday.
“As a result of the earthquake that hit Turkey on the sixth of this month, many factories in the country have stopped production and many roads have been destroyed, and because of the instability in the exchange rate of Iraqi dinar to dollars, trade at Ibrahim Khalil border crossing has dropped by 70 to 80 percent,” read a statement from the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing administration.
A destructive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey on Monday morning, with the impact felt across the country and neighboring Syria. As of Saturday, over 24,000 people are confirmed to have died and thousands more were injured.
Ibrahim Khalil border crossing in Duhok province is Turkey’s only official land border gate with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
The Kurdistan Region relies on neighboring Turkey for the lion’s share of its trade and investment. Like Iraq to the south, the economy is weighted heavily in favor of foreign imports of food and consumer goods, paid for with oil wealth. Trade volume between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey is over five billion dollars annually.
The border crossing announced later on Saturday that they had halted all cash trade with Turkey as well.
The Iraqi dinar dramatically lost value against the US dollar in recent months, attributed to corruption, smuggling dollars into Iran, and pressure from the United States. However, it rebounded last week after Baghdad revalued the dinar.
“As a result of the earthquake that hit Turkey on the sixth of this month, many factories in the country have stopped production and many roads have been destroyed, and because of the instability in the exchange rate of Iraqi dinar to dollars, trade at Ibrahim Khalil border crossing has dropped by 70 to 80 percent,” read a statement from the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing administration.
A destructive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey on Monday morning, with the impact felt across the country and neighboring Syria. As of Saturday, over 24,000 people are confirmed to have died and thousands more were injured.
Ibrahim Khalil border crossing in Duhok province is Turkey’s only official land border gate with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
The Kurdistan Region relies on neighboring Turkey for the lion’s share of its trade and investment. Like Iraq to the south, the economy is weighted heavily in favor of foreign imports of food and consumer goods, paid for with oil wealth. Trade volume between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey is over five billion dollars annually.
The border crossing announced later on Saturday that they had halted all cash trade with Turkey as well.
The Iraqi dinar dramatically lost value against the US dollar in recent months, attributed to corruption, smuggling dollars into Iran, and pressure from the United States. However, it rebounded last week after Baghdad revalued the dinar.
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