Iraq's Finance Ministry Raises Official Dollar Rate 13 Percent as Dinar Falls to 1,520 per Dollar

Iraq's Ministry of Finance announced early on Wednesday, 15 Mehr 1405 (October 7, 2026), that the central bank set the public dollar selling rate at 1,520 dinars per dollar, up from about 1,320 dinars, a nearly 13 percent devaluation. According to Donya e Eqtesad, this is the first currency devaluation among Persian Gulf Arab states since the US war on Iran began, driven by pressure from the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Iraq's oil exports. Bloomberg estimates cited in the report put Iraq's average crude exports since early March 2026 at about 1.25 million barrels per day, down from roughly 3.5 million barrels per day in 2025. Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) had said the country's losses since the conflict began reached about 80 billion dollars as of September. The IMF projects Iraq's 265 billion dollar economy could shrink by nearly 7 percent in 2026.