Iraq introduces new Dinar currency

The Iraqi Central Bank on Saturday issued a new Iraqi currency which will be put into circulation on October 15th.

The assistant for the Central Bank governor Ahmad Salman Muhammad said that the bank has enough new dinars to replace the old dinars which carried the picture of the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and "to maintain a reserve for two years." But he refused to specify the amounts of the already printed new dinars.

In a press conference he had held at the headquarters of the Central Bank amid strong security measures, Muhammad explained that the new dinars are of 50 and 250,000 and 5,000 and 25,000 bills and will replace the old dinars which can be exchanged until their circulation ends on January 15th, 2004. He said this " will be a unified currency for a united Iraq."