ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) on Saturday said it has sufficient reserves to meet demands for foreign trade, credit card transactions, and travelers at the official exchange rate, amid a dinar plunge in Iraq’s parallel market.

The value of Iraq’s dinar in the country’s unofficial exchange market has plunged significantly, with $100 being exchanged for over 159,000 dinars as of the time of writing this article, compared to around 150,000 less than two months earlier.

The Central Bank attributed the sharp decline to “market speculation, expectations, and the exploitation of regional geopolitical conditions by certain parties seeking to destabilize the economic and financial situation for their own gain,” in a statement, reassuring that the bank’s foreign reserves have remained intact.

The bank reaffirmed that it possesses “sufficient foreign reserves to meet all demands for foreign currency, including those for financing foreign trade, settling bank card transactions, and providing cash dollars to travelers—at the officially approved exchange rate.”

The value of the dinar has experienced severe turbulence in recent years, experiencing rapid inclines and declines at the currency exchange markets corresponding to major local, regional, and international political and economic events.

Since 2023, the CBI has set the official exchange rate at 1,320 dinars per one US dollar. Although that rate is used in official government transactions, it has never been in use in local currency exchange markets.

In June, the Iraqi dinar crashed to its lowest value in over 2.5 years and briefly traded at 160,000 IQD per $100. At the time, economic expert Mustafa Hasan cited two main causes for the fall: The US-Israeli war on Iran, and the replacement of the CBI governor.