Part 9 of 15
Dollar rate in Iraq today: how the number is made, and how to read it
Iraq runs two dollar rates. This is what each one is, where DinarView reads the market one, and five years of data on how far apart they have been.
Read the one before this?
Economic Indicators That Affect Currency Values
Ask three people in Iraq what the dollar1,588+0.52% is worth today and you can get three honest answers. The bank will say 1,310 dinars. The board outside an exchange office in Erbil will say something close to 154,500 per hundred. A relative abroad who sent money last week will name a third number, the one the transfer actually settled at. None of them is lying. Iraq runs two dollar rates, and most of the confusion about “the rate” comes from not knowing which one is being quoted.
This article explains what each rate is, where DinarView’s number comes from, and what five years of daily readings say about how the two have moved.
Two rates, one country
The official rate is set by the Central Bank of Iraq. Since February 2023 the bank has sold dollars to licensed banks at 1,300 dinars, with a selling rate to the public through those banks of 1,310. Before that it was 1,450 (from December 2020) and, for the sixteen years before that, 1,182. It moves only when policy changes. It applies to approved transactions: letters of credit for imports, customs valuations, government salaries paid in dinar terms, and the dollar sales the bank makes through its daily window.
The market rate is what licensed exchange offices actually trade at with the public. It is not a black-market rate: the offices are licensed by the same central bank and print their prices on boards in the street. It moves every day, sometimes several times a day, because it is a price set by supply and demand for physical dollars.
On 3 September 2026 the gap between the two was about 18 percent. That gap is the single most important number in Iraqi money, because it decides who gets cheap dollars (anyone whose transaction qualifies for the official channel) and who pays the market (everyone else).
Where DinarView’s number comes from
DinarView publishes three things, and keeps them apart.
- The headline rate at the top of the site is our own collected market rate, updated through the trading day. It is the number the charts are drawn from, and its daily record runs back to May 2022.
- Buy and sell are read every ten minutes from the public rate boards of named exchange offices: Khaki Shaqlawa and Gailany Money Exchange in Erbil, and Al-Taif Exchange in Baghdad, with more boards added as offices join. A city’s buy and sell are the median of its fresh boards. If only one board is fresh, the page says so and labels the figure indicative.
- The official rate is read from the Central Bank’s published table and shown beside the market rate, never averaged into it.
Every figure carries the time of its last reading. A board that has not moved for a day and a half drops out of the average until it moves again, so a stale screen cannot quietly pull the number.
What the boards actually print
Iraqi boards quote the dinar per hundred dollars, not per one. A board that reads 154,500 / 154,575 means the office buys a hundred-dollar note for 154,500 dinars and sells one for 154,575. The difference, 75 dinars on a hundred dollars, is the office’s spread: five hundredths of one percent. Baghdad boards tend to print a single rate; Erbil boards print both sides.
| Board, 3 September 2026 | City | Buy | Sell | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khaki Shaqlawa | Erbil | 154,500 | 154,575 | 75 |
| Gailany Money Exchange | Erbil | 154,250 | 155,000 | 750 |
| Al-Taif Exchange | Baghdad | 154,200 | 154,200 | — |
| Central Bank of Iraq (official) | — | 131,000 | 131,000 | — |
Per hundred dollars, in dinars. The live version of this table is on the rate board.
Five years of the market rate
DinarView has recorded the market rate every trading day since May 2022. The yearly picture is simpler than the daily noise suggests.
| Year | Average | Low | High | Official | Gap at average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 (from May) | 1,486 | 1,456 | 1,578 | 1,450 | 2.5% |
| 2023 | 1,537 | 1,413 | 1,728 | 1,310 | 17.3% |
| 2024 | 1,497 | 1,447 | 1,551 | 1,310 | 14.3% |
| 2025 | 1,438 | 1,390 | 1,512 | 1,310 | 9.8% |
| 2026 (to early September) | 1,529 | 1,440 | 1,578 | 1,310 | 16.7% |
Dinars per one dollar, from DinarView’s daily record. The 2023 official figure applied from February.
Three episodes stand out. In late 2022 and early 2023, after tighter compliance rules were imposed on Iraqi dollar transfers abroad, the market rate climbed from about 1,480 to a peak of 1,728 in February 2023 while the official rate was still 1,450. The central bank’s move to 1,300 that month did not close the gap; it moved the whole ladder down and the market fell with it, to 1,451 by April. Through 2025 the market drifted steadily toward the official rate, bottoming near 1,390 in July 2025 and narrowing the gap to under ten percent. Then, in January 2026, the rate jumped from 1,440 to 1,553 inside four weeks and has traded between 1,500 and 1,578 since.
Which rate should you use?
The rule is about the channel, not the amount.
- Use the market rate if you are changing cash at an office, pricing something for sale, agreeing rent, or working out what a dinar salary is worth in dollars. This is the rate almost every individual actually meets.
- Use the official rate only if your money genuinely moves through the official channel: an approved import with a letter of credit, a customs valuation, an official government payment.
- If you are receiving a transfer, the rate applied is neither: it is the market rate minus whatever the transfer service keeps. Ask for the dinar amount before you agree, and compare it with the market rate that day.
How to read a rate you see elsewhere
Three checks save most mistakes. First, the unit: 154,500 is per hundred dollars, 1,545 is per one; a figure between 1,000 and 2,000 is per dollar. Second, the side: a board’s buy is what you receive for a dollar, its sell is what you pay; a single number is usually the mid or the sell. Third, the time: a rate without a time is a rumour. Every number on DinarView carries the hour it was read, and Friday, the market holiday, is when the boards go quiet.
Questions people ask
Is the market rate legal?
Yes. The exchange offices that print it are licensed by the Central Bank of Iraq and trade openly. The word “black market” belongs to a different era; what the boards show is the open-market or parallel rate, and DinarView calls it the market rate.
Why is Erbil a few hundred dinars above Baghdad?
Because the two markets are supplied differently. Erbil’s boards quote both sides and adjust several times a day; Baghdad’s large chains print a single national rate and move it less often. The gap between the cities on 3 September 2026 was about 380 dinars on a hundred dollars, a quarter of one percent, which is within the spread of a single Erbil board. The cities page shows the difference live.
Does the rate change on Friday?
Rarely. Friday is the market holiday; most boards freeze on Thursday evening and reopen on Saturday morning. DinarView keeps the last reading on screen with its time, and reads the boards once at noon on Friday in case one has moved.
Where does the official rate apply to an ordinary person?
Mostly through prices rather than directly: a government salary is paid in dinars, and imported goods that came in at the official rate are cheaper than they would be at the market rate. If you walk into a bank to buy dollars for travel you may be offered dollars at close to the official rate, subject to the bank’s limits and paperwork; that is the one place the two rates meet for individuals.
The live buy and sell for the whole country and for each city, with the boards behind them, are on the rate board. The cities page shows how Erbil and Baghdad sit against the national average, and the offices page lists every office we read, with its address and hours.