Part 14 of 15
How to read the rate on this page
The big number, the two lines under it, and the small grey timestamp that matters more than either.
Read the one before this?
Why the dollar rises and falls in Iraq: the five forces, measured against four years of data
Most people arrive here for one figure and leave with it. That is fine — it is the number the page is built around. But there are three other things on the screen worth thirty seconds, because each one changes what the big number means.
The big number is the market rate
It is what the open currency market is quoting, not what the central bank has fixed. Those are different numbers and this site never mixes them. If you are pricing something you will actually buy or sell today, the market rate is the one you want.
The chart has two lines because Iraq has two rates
The solid line is the market. The flat, dashed one is the central bank rate, and it looks flat because it is: the dinar is held at a fixed value against the dollar1,592—, so that line stays put for long stretches and then steps. The distance between the two lines is the spread, and it is usually the more interesting quantity.
The timestamp is doing real work
Beside every figure is the moment it was collected, in Baghdad time. Outside trading hours nothing new arrives, so the last reading stays on screen — with its own older timestamp still showing. A rate without its moment is not a fact about anything, which is why we would rather show you an old number you can date than a fresh one we cannot vouch for.
A gap in the line is a gap in the record
Where the chart breaks, we hold no reading for that period. We do not draw a straight line across it. Interpolating would invent a price for a moment when nobody was trading, and it would make a hole in the data look like a calm week.