Turkey is to double its electricity exports to Iraq to 600 megawatts as Baghdad seeks to offset US-sanctioned energy from Iran before the scorching summer months.
Iraq's Ministry of Electricity has completed “all logistical and infrastructure measures necessary to increase the supply capacity via the Iraqi-Turkish interconnection line to 600 megawatts", it said in a statement on Sunday.
Alparslan Bayraktar, Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, held meetings in Baghdad with officials including Iraqi Electricity Minister Ziad Ali Fadel. Mr Bayraktar said the increased electricity supply will begin “in the coming months”, the Iraqi ministry said.
Last July, Baghdad and Ankara inaugurated the power line that currently supplies Iraq with 300MW of electricity. Under US President Donald Trump's “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, America last week rescinded a waiver to Iraq that would allow it to secure energy imports from Iran. The policy is designed to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Despite being Opec’s second-biggest producer, Iraq struggles to meet the growing demand for electricity because of decades of war, mismanagement and corruption. Iraq spent at least $60 billion on the electricity sector since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country, former prime minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi said in 2020.
Baghdad depends on Iran for about a third of its electricity needs. It buys 50 million cubic metres of natural gas and 500MW of electricity a day from Iran. US sanctions will only affect electricity imports, Iraqi officials have said.
Baghdad has been under pressure from the US to wean itself off Iranian energy imports, which have been subject to US sanctions since 2018. Since then, Washington has repeatedly extended waivers to Baghdad for periods of 45 to 120 days to allow it to import Iranian electricity and gas.
Iraq has in recent years taken some measures to develop its natural gas resources and reduce shortfalls in the electricity sector. Iraq’s natural gas reserves stand at about 3,714 billion cubic metres, Oil Ministry figures show.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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