Today, Wednesday, the Iraqi News Agency said that the Central Bank intends to regulate the financing of foreign trade from China directly in the Chinese yuan currency, in a step that is the first of its kind within a package of measures aimed at facilitating access to foreign currencies. Urgent that would compensate for the dollar shortage in the local market, which prompted the Iraqi Council of Ministers to agree to re-evaluate the Iraqi dinar once morest the dollar this month. “This is the first time that imports from China are financed in yuan…and Iraq’s imports from China are funded by dollars only,” said Adviser to the Prime Minister for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Salih, to Archyde.com. This is the latest sign of the growing role of the Chinese yuan globally, with China’s tendency to gradually open its financial markets, in addition to the diversification of some countries’ dealings in foreign currencies. The Central Bank said in a statement that, within this plan, it aims to strengthen the balances of Iraqi banks, which have accounts with Chinese banks in the yuan currency. The statement added that the second option would be by strengthening the balances of Iraqi banks, through the accounts of the central bank with JP Morgan Bank and the Development Bank in Singapore. Saleh explained that the first option depends on the central bank’s yuan reserves, while the other option will use the bank’s US dollar reserves in JP Morgan and the Development Bank of Singapore. These banks convert dollars into yuan and pay the ultimate beneficiary in China.