The street dollar
Iraq has two prices for a dollar: the Central Bank’s, for banks and approved transfers, and the street’s, for everyone else. The gap between them is the clearest daily sign of pressure on the dinar — and the bank’s dollars are running down.
21.5%
more than the official rate is what a dollar cost on Baghdad’s exchange this morning (4 October): 1,580 dinars, against the Central Bank’s 1,300. When our record starts, on 24 July, the gap was 14.8%.
Two prices for one dollar
The official rate has barely moved (1,310 to 1,300); the street has. Every session on the Baghdad bourse since 24 July, morning and close.
Dinars for one dollar · Baghdad bourse (al-Kifah) against the Central Bank’s official rate · point at the chart to read a session
The cushion
The Central Bank holds the dollars that keep the official rate. It had $80.6bn in July 2026, against $111.7bn in December 2023 — $21.5bn of the fall since February 2026 alone.
15.1months of dollar sales — if the bank kept selling at the past year’s pace and no oil money came in; it was 17.5 in April 2026.
Dollars out, oil dollars in
The bank’s dollars come from oil: SOMO sells the crude, the Finance Ministry sells the dollars to the bank, the bank sells them to importers. In a normal month the two are close. From March 2026 to June 2026, the bank sold $18.9bn while oil brought in $5.4bn. The difference came out of the cushion.
- Dollars the Central Bank sold
- Dollars oil earned
HOW THESE NUMBERS ARE MADE
- The street rate — the Baghdad bourse (al-Kifah), per 100 dollars, as Shafaq News reports each morning and close; shown here per dollar. The series →
- The official rate — the Central Bank’s transfer rate, from its own daily workbook, the newest working day at most a week before the session. The series →
- The gap — street ÷ official − 1. The working →
- Reserves and months of cover — the Central Bank’s bulletin; cover is reserves ÷ the average monthly dollar sale over the twelve months to that month. The working →
- Dollars out and in — the bank’s window sales against SOMO’s crude revenue, same month. A month from SOMO’s statement is outlined: provisional. The working →