Iraqi dinar

Iraqi dinar
دينار عراقي (Arabic) دیناری عێراقی (Kurdish)
25,000-dinar banknote
ISO 4217
Code	IQD
Denominations
Subunit
1⁄1,000	fils
Symbol	ع.د
Banknotes
Freq. used	1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 dinars
Rarely used	250, 500 dinars
Demographics
User(s)	Iraq
Issuance
Central bank	Central Bank of Iraq
Website	www.cbi.iq
Valuation
Inflation	1.79%
Source	Central Bank of Iraq, May 2015.

The Dinar (Arabic pronunciation: [diːˈnɑːr]) (Arabic: دينار, [(sign: د.ع; code: IQD) is the currency of Iraq. It is issued by the Central Bank of Iraq and is subdivided into 1,000 fils (فلس), although inflation has rendered the fils obsolete since 1990.

The dinar was introduced into circulation in 1932, by replacing the Indian Rupee, which had been the official currency since the British occupation of the country in World War I, at a rate of 1 dinar = 11 rupees. The dinar was pegged at par with the British Pound until 1959 when, without changing its value, the peg was switched to the United States dollar at the rate of 1 dinar = 2.8 dollars. By not following the devaluations of the U.S. currency in 1971 and 1973, the dinar rose to a value of US$3.3778, before a 5 percent devaluation reduced the value of the dinar to US$3.2169, a rate which remained until the Gulf War, although in late 1989, the black market rate was reported at five to six times higher than the official rate.

After the Gulf War in 1991, due to UN sanctions, the previously used Swiss printing method was no longer available so new, inferior quality, notes were produced. The previously produced notes became known as the Swiss dinar and continued to circulate in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Due to sanctions placed on Iraq by the United States and the international community along with excessive government printing, the new dinar notes devalued quickly. By late 1995, US$1 was valued at 3,000 dinars at the black market.

Following the deposition of Saddam Hussein in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance began printing more Saddam dinar notes as a stopgap measure to maintain the money supply until new currency could be introduced.