Abstract

Public debt has posed a major challenge to both developing and developed countries, which has focused attention on the optimal limits (threshold of debt) and its determinants.

The study examines the effect of the Public bank debt on the foreign reserves and the work of the foreign reserve as a limitation on the process of bank debt (part of the internal debt) for the period (2017-2004), in addition to finding the type and nature of the relationship between them according to the hypotheses of the study, Public bank debt and foreign reserves.

The study was based on data from the Iraqi banking sector, which showed that Iraq has a foreign reserve in line with international standards, but maintains an excessive reserve. And that the Central Bank of Iraq cannot control the request or offer reserve, but he manages this reserve. It also shows Iraq's dependence on oil revenues in the sustainability of its debt, which means that increasing the oil resource works to sustain the public bank debt.

Non-bank institutions contributed to the internal debt process (the Department for the Care of Minors and the National Pensioners Authority), and the Central Bank of Iraq contributed to the process of bank debt, by discounting remittances in the secondary market only, with the sharp decline in oil prices during the years (2017,2016,2015) (32.6, 51.5 and 48.6) % respectively, which gave an outlet to finance the deficit or military spending, while bonds constituted a low ratio. The contribution of the Central Bank of Iraq in the process of banking debt, led to the depletion of foreign reserves, where the window maintained the sale of foreign currency almost the same amount, while central dollar purchases from the Ministry of Finance decreased, which is offset through the reserves, and thus drain.