Britain appoints Iraqi professor Sinan al-Shabibi as chairman of monetary policy committee

by **claud39** Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:15 am

http://www.almadarnews.org/index.php?page=article&id=51661

Britain appoints Iraqi professor Sinan al-Shabibi as chairman of monetary policy committee

26-02-2019

Agency of the orbit -

Baghdad

The British central bank issued a decision on Monday to appoint Iraqi professor Sinan al-Shabibi as chairman of the monetary policy committee.

"The Bank of England decided to appoint Professor Shabibi as chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee, which was previously governor of the Central Bank of Iraq," the English media reported.

"This decision came to benefit from the experiences of al-Shabibi to maintain the exchange rate of the British pound and to prevent the British economy from getting into trouble, especially after the exit from the European Union."

Iraqi sources told al-Madar that Professor Sinan al-Shabibi had been deposed from the post of governor of the Central Bank of Iraq by the previous government headed by Nuri al-Maliki, because he did not agree to sell the dollar to Iran.

by **claud39** Tue Feb 26, 2019 7:20 pm

Sinan Al Shabibi

[th]Dr. Sinan Al - Shabibi[/th][th]Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq[/th][th]Succeeded by[/th][th]Personal details[/th][th]Born[/th][th]Nationality[/th][th]relationship[/th][th]Alma mater[/th][th]Profession[/th]



In office September 2003 – October 2012
Abdel Basset Turki (acting)
1 July 1941 Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq
Iraq
Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi (father)
University of Baghdad University of Manchester University of Bristol
Economist

Dr. Sinan Al-Shabibi (Arabic: الدكتور سنان الشبيبي‎) is an Iraqi economist who served as the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq from September 2003 to October 2012.

Early life and education

Born in Baghdad on 1 July 1941 and son of the prominent Iraqi figure Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi, Dr. Al-Shabibi holds a BSc in Economics from Baghdad University (1966), a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Economic Development, an MA in Economics from the University of Manchester (1970, 1971), and a PhD in Economics from the University of Bristol (1975).

Early career

From April 1977 to December 1980, Sinan Al-Shabibi was the Chief of plan Preparation and Co-ordination Division at the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, and from May 1975 to March 1977 he worked as the Head of Imports and Marketing Section at the Iraqi ministry of oil.

Immediately after the start of the Iran–Iraq War, he moved to Geneva in Switzerland where he spent from December 1980 to October 2001 working as a Senior Economist in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).^[1]^[2]

On 1 August 2002 Al-Shabibi testified among other witnesses at the Hearing Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about possible military action in Iraq. The topics that he addressed were the state of the Iraqi economy and its stabilisation post a possible military campaign.^[3]

Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq

Since taking over as central bank governor, Al-Shabibi introduced the bank's employees to modern finance and payment systems. He made the bank switch from typewriters and calculators to computers, introduced it to financial instruments like currency auctions, and replaced Iraq's pre-2003 banknotes with the New Iraqi Dinar between October 2003 and January 2004. He also involved directly the Central Bank of Iraq in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank co-operation programs, in addition to the Paris Club negotiations where 19 rich creditor nations agreed in 2004 to write off 80 percent of pre-2003 debt to help Iraq recover from the 2003 US-led invasion.^[4] Debt forgiveness talks with non-Paris Club nations are still under way.

In the effort to further modernise the Central Bank of Iraq, Al-Shabibi appointed Baghdad-born architect Zaha Hadid in August 2010 to design the new headquarters for the Central Bank in Baghdad. On 2 February 2012 Zaha Hadid joined Dr Sinan Al‐Shabibi at a ceremony in London to sign the agreement between the Central Bank of Iraq and Zaha Hadid Architects for the design stages of the new CBI Headquarters building.^[5]

Despite a highly uncertain domestic and external environment, Al-Shabibi has held the Iraqi currency, the Iraqi Dinar firm at about US$1 = IQD 1'190 (US$1 equalled IQD 2'214 in December 2002), reduced inflation to single digits (from 64% in 2006 to 5.2% in September 2012), quadrupled the bank's gold reserves to 32 tonnes, and remained a strong advocate of central bank independence. The implementation of these policies combined with the rise in oil revenues have helped to increase foreign exchange reserves to nearly US$67 billion (as of September 2012) up from US$2.7 billion in December 2002 supporting further Iraq's Macroeconomic stability.

On 1 March 2012, Shabibi had an interview with American Contractor to whom he revealed that his bank is planning to publish six to seven new banknotes.^[6]

Corruption allegation

In 2014 Sinan Al Shabibi was sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption during his administration of the bank while attending world conference in Tokyo in 2012.^[7] On 16 October 2012, he was dismissed^[8] and then replaced by Abdul-Basit Turki, a watchdog of the Board of Supreme Audit.^[9]