| Dates |
Arrangement |
Legal basis |
Remarks |
| 1500s -March
1917 |
fixed; officially used Ottoman
currency, but in practice Indian rupee was more widely used
from mid or late 1800s |
|
Iraq was part of the Ottoman
Empire. The Indian rupee, which did not suffer the debasement
that beset Ottoman coins, was widely used. Officially, all
foreign coins were banned in 1883 (Ottoman Empire, circular
of 25 January 1883), though they were later accepted for some
payments (Ottoman Empire, circular of June 1894). The Ottoman
lira was a decimal currency from 1881. |
| March 1917
-31 March 1932 |
fixed; used Indian rupee |
|
The British introduced Indian
rupee, one of their colonial currencies, upon conquering Iraq
during First World War. The rupee was already familiar because
it was widely used in trade. It was not a decimal currency. |
| 1 April 1932
-17 December 1946 |
fixed; 1 Iraqi dinar = UK£1 |
Iraq, Iraq Currency Law, No.
44, 19 April 1931; Law No. 101, 12 December 1931 |
Iraq established its own currency,
which unlike the Indian rupee was decimalized; it was divided
into 1,000 fils. "Dinar" derives from the Latin
denarius, a silver coin of ancient Rome. Through
the April 1931 law, the Iraqi dinar was to have had a gold
value equal to the pound sterling, but the pound sterling
was floated against gold on 21 September 1931, so the December
1931 law removed the planned gold parity. Indian rupees were
exchanged at 1 Indian rupee = 0.075 Iraqi dinars from 1-28
April 1932, 1 Indian rupee = 0.074 Iraqi dinars from 29 April-5
May 1932, and 1 Indian rupee = 0.0745 Iraqi dinars from 6
May-30 June 1932. These were equal to the prevailing rates
in London of the Indian rupee against the pound sterling. |
| 18 December 1946
-30 June 1949 |
fixed; 1 Iraqi dinar = UK£1
= US$4.03 = 3.58134g gold |
|
Iraq registered a gold parity
with the IMF. |
| 1 July 1949
-19 September 1949 |
hard peg; 1 Iraqi dinar =
UK£1 = US$4.03 = 3.58134g gold |
Iraq, National Bank of Iraq
Law, No. 43, July 1947; Law No. 42 of 1947 |
Iraq replaced its currency
board with a central bank, so the exchange rate changed from
fixed to a hard peg. |
| 20 September 1949
-22 June 1959 |
hard peg; 1 Iraqi dinar =
UK£1 = US$2.80 = 2.48828g gold |
Iraq, Law No. 42 of 1947 |
Followed the United Kingdom's
devaluation of the pound sterling on 18 September 1949. |
| 23 June 1959
-4 July 1964 |
hard peg; 1 Iraqi dinar =
US$2.80 = UK£1 = 2.48828g gold |
|
Switched to the US dollar
as the anchor currency, at the prevailing cross rate with
pound sterling.
RR: De facto peg to pound
sterling / dual market. |
| 5 July 1964
-17 November 1967 |
hard peg, multiple rates;
official rate 1 Iraqi dinar = US$2.80 = UK£1 = 2.48828g gold |
Iraq, Law No. 87 of 1964 |
Introduced excise taxes on
transfers of foreign exchange for Iraqis leaving the country.
RR: De facto peg to pound
sterling / dual market. |
| 18 November 1967
-22 August 1971 |
hard peg, multiple rates;
official rate 1 Iraqi dinar = US$2.80 = UK£1.166 = 2.48828g
gold |
|
Did not follow the devaluation
of the pound sterling on 18 November 1967. The central bank
suspended foreign-exchange dealings on 16 August 1971 and
resumed on 23 August 1971, but licensed dealers were authorized
to continue certain transactions.
RR: De facto peg to pound
sterling / dual market. |
| 23 August 1971
-20 December 1971 |
hard peg, multiple rates;
official rate 1 Iraqi dinar = UK£1.166 = 2.48828g gold (nominally) |
|
Gold convertibility for all
countries ended in practice when the United States abandoned
the gold standard on 15 August 1971. Iraq remained pegged
to the pound sterling and in effect unpegged from the US dollar.
RR: De facto peg to pound
sterling / dual market. |
| 21 December 1971
-31 March 1972 |
hard peg, multiple rates;
official rate 1 Iraqi dinar = UK£1.166 = US$3.04 = 2.48828g
gold (nominally) |
|
Repegged to the US dollar
after the United States devalued the dollar against gold on
18 December 1971. Iraq adopted wider margins. The central
bank suspended foreign-exchange quotations from 24 June-2
July 1972 after the United Kingdom floated the pound sterling
on 23 June 1972.
RR: De facto peg to pound
sterling / dual market. |
| 1 April 1972
-2 July 1972 |
hard peg, 1 Iraqi dinar =
UK£1.166 = US$3.04 = 2.48828g gold (nominally) |
|
Unified the exchange rate
by abolishing the exchange tax on people leaving Iraq. After
the United Kingdom floated the pound sterling on 23 June 1972,
Iraq's central bank suspended foreign-exchange quotations
on 24 June 1972, resuming on 3 July 1972.
RR: De facto peg to pound
sterling / dual market. |
| 3 July 1972
-12 February 1973 |
hard peg, 1 Iraqi dinar =
US$3.04 = 2.48828g gold (nominally) |
|
Switched to the US dollar
as the anchor currency. |
| 13 February 1973
-31 March 1978 |
hard peg, 1 Iraqi dinar =
US$3.3778 = 2.48828g gold (nominally) |
|
Did not follow the devaluation
of the US dollar on 13 February 1973. |
| 1 April 1978
-16 October 1982 |
hard peg, 1 Iraqi dinar =
US$3.3778 |
International Monetary Fund,
Board of Governors, Resolution No. 31-4, 30 April 1976 ("Second
Amendment") |
The system of gold par values
officially ended by agreement of IMF members.
RR: Managed float / parallel
market from January 1982. |
| 17 October 1982
-1994? |
hard peg, 1 Iraqi dinar =
US$3.2169 |
|
Devalued by 5%. A currency
confiscation occurred on 5 May 1993 as Iraq withdrew 25-dinar
"Swiss print" notes from circulation (Iraq, decision
of cabinet and Revolutionary Command Council, 2 May 1993).
Notes were exchanged at 25 new dinars = 25 old dinars until
10 May 1993, but Iraq closed its borders to prevent foreign
holders from repatriating the notes during the redemption
period. After the period was over, the notes became worthless
in areas controlled by the government of Saddam Hussein. The
25-dinar Swiss-print notes continued to be valid in Kurdish
areas, which since the Persian Gulf War of 1991 had become
de facto independent.
RR: Managed float / parallel
market. Multiple rates in 1982 and 1983. |
| 1994?
-29 June 2001 |
hard peg; 1,750 Iraqi dinars
= US$1 |
|
The IMF source shows this
exchange rate as of 1994 but does not say when it began. Iraq
released little information to the IMF after the 1991 Persian
Gulf War.
RR: Managed float / parallel
market to December 1997, when data end. |
| 30 June 2001
-19 March 2003 |
managed float |
|
The IMF reclassified the exchange
rate arrangement in light of information that state banks
could buy and sell foreign currency at prevailing market rates.
The actual change of arrangements was probably earlier. |
| 20 March 2003
-3 October 2003 |
clean float |
|
With the US invasion of Iraq
on 20 March 2003, the exchange rate arrangement became in
effect a clean float for a time. |
| 4 October 2003
-14 October 2003 |
managed float |
|
Returned to a managed float,
with the central bank determining the exchange rate using
rates resulting from foreign-exchange auctions. |
| 15 October 2003
-present |
(new) Iraqi dinar, managed
float |
|
Introduced a new design of
currency across the whole country, including Kurdish areas
that had used the "Swiss print" dinar printed from
1979-1989. Currency was exchanged at 1 new Iraqi dinar = 1
old Iraqi dinar, or 150 new Iraqi dinars = 1 Swiss print dinar.
Approximately 4 trillion old dinars are expected to be exchanged.
Old dinars ceased being legal tender on 15 January 2004. |
