Iraqi cabinet endorses 50 million iraqi dinar loans for small projects

The interest rate is 6%, two to be paid by the loan holder while 4% will be paid by the finance ministry, he said.

The cabinet also approved the establishment of the Najaf power plant, operating with natural gas at a cost of US$55m and a design capacity of 22 MW, Al-Dabbagh added.

"A contract to that effect will soon be signed with a specialised company to start carrying out the Najaf power plant project," said the spokesman, without providing the name of the company.

Al-Dabbagh added the cabinet decided to sign WLL (wireless local loop) contracts with companies offering cellular service in the country if they already had contracts with previous governments before April 2003.

The cabinet agreed to implement the contracts concluded by the mobile phones companies and allocate them the required frequencies for operation, he said. (Source)Iraq Development Program

Iraq Central Bank enhances banks’ liquidity

A statement of the Bank said that this policy addresses according to the intermediate variables, including the quality of growth in the amount of cash offers, the ability to manage liquidity and the tools of the monetary policy desired by it, pointing out that the new mechanism would include working with the currency and securities markets to create an effective system of payment that grants banks the trust to meet their payment obligations at reasonable cost, and the most costly in the provision of liquidity is the use of additional reserves such as money in treasuries and balances in excess of the legal reserve requirements.

The statement confirmed that the margins of the difference between interest rates on deposits and loans can be reduced by allowing the banks to reduce the possession of the proceeds resulting from surplus requirements that have no interests, explaining that the ability of banks depend on reducing excess requirements through reliable media in the management of liquidity.(Source)AlSabah

Iraq Central Bank determines the dollar price on last Sunday aginst iraqi dinar

Dealers with the Iraqi Central Bank said the auction on Sunday will not be an ordinary auction session but will be a direct sale session at the same exchange rates adopted at the auction last Thursday; the sale will be open to all the quantities required, in addition that the bank will buy any amount of foreign exchange sold by the banks to the Central Bank. (Source) AlSabah