BROADCASTS.com

A Fistful of Dinars: Demystifying Iraq's Dollar Auction\n

link to My FX Buddies Blog\n\n

The\xa0Central Bank of Iraq's (CBI)\xa0dollar auction has been a continuous source of controversies and conspiracy theories. The main accusations facing it include: the siphoning of dollars to Iran, money laundering, and currency smuggling.

Missing from this melee is an understanding of the economy's key structural imbalances: mainly that the Iraqi economy is wholly dependent on oil export revenues, and demand for goods and services is met through imports handled by a largely informal private sector.