Sinan Al-Shabibi ( ar, سنان الشبيبي; 1 July 1941 – 8 January 2022) was an Iraqi economist who served as the governor of the

Central Bank of Iraq The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) ( ar, البنك المركزي العراقي) is the central bank of Iraq. It was established in 1947, the same year in which the British occupation of Iraq was ended. CBI's primary objectives are to ensure domestic ...

from September 2003 to October 2012.

Early life and education

Born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

on 1 July 1941 and son of the prominent Iraqi figure Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi, Dr. Al-Shabibi held a BSc in Economics from

Baghdad University The University of Baghdad (UOB) ( ar, جامعة بغداد ''Jāmi'at Baghdād'') is the largest university in Iraq, tenth largest in the Arab world, and the largest university in the Arab world outside Egypt. Nomenclature Both University ...

(1966), a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Economic Development, an MA in Economics from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

(1970, 1971), and a PhD in Economics from the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

(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 The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...

, he moved to

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

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 The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the ...

(UNCTAD). On 1 August 2002, Al-Shabibi testified among other witnesses at the Hearing Before the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid p ...

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.

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 The Iraqi dinar () (Arabic: دينار; sign: ID in Latin, د.ع in Arabic; 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 obsolet ...

between October 2003 and January 2004. He also involved directly the

in the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

and

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

co-operation programs, in addition to the

Paris Club The Paris Club (french: Club de Paris) is a group of officials from major creditor countries whose role is to find co-ordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries. As debtor countries undertake ...

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. Debt forgiveness talks with non-Paris Club nations are still under way. In the effort to further modernise the

, Al-Shabibi appointed

-born architect

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...

in August 2010 to design the new headquarters for the Central Bank in

. On 2 February 2012 Zaha Hadid joined Dr Sinan Al‐Shabibi at a ceremony in London to sign the agreement between the

and

Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Architects is a British architecture and design firm founded by Zaha Hadid (1950–2016), with its main office situated in Clerkenwell, London. Architectural work Conceptual projects *Price Tower extension hybrid project (2002), Ba ...

for the design stages of the new CBI Headquarters building. Despite a highly uncertain domestic and external environment, Al-Shabibi has held the Iraqi currency, the

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 A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

independence. The implementation of these policies combined with the rise in oil revenues have helped to increase

foreign exchange reserve Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence ...

s to nearly US$67 billion (as of September 2012) up from US$2.7 billion in December 2002 supporting further Iraq's macroeconomic fundamentals for the purpose of weathering future oil price downside volatility.

Personal life and death

Al Shabibi died on 8 January 2022, at the age of 80.

Publications

*"Globalisation of Finance: Implications for macroeconomic policies and debt management", March 2001, Paper presented to a conference on "Globalization and the Gulf organised by the institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, England, 2–4 July 2001. *"Prospects for the Iraqi Economy: Facing the new reality". Paper presented to a conference on "The Future of Iraq", organised by the Middle East Institute, Washington. The paper was published in a book with the same title in November 1997 and reprinted in the UNCTAD secretariat. It deals with the effect of sanctions, debt, and war reparations on the future prospects of the Iraqi economy. *"The Arab share in OPEC Aid: Some related facts" in Arabic, in Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi, Centre of Arab Unity Studies, Beirut, September 1988. *"OPEC Aid, Issues and Performance" in the OPEC review, Vienna, spring 1987. *"Studies on the Iraqi Economy", Iraqi Economic Forum, London, 2002, pp. 24–27.

Awards

Arabian Business Power 500 – Listed among The World's Most Influential Arabs, June 2012.Arabic version – بالعربيةArabian Business Power 500 – Listed among The World's Most

References

External links

Sinan Al Shabibi
on C-SPAN
Architect Zaha Hadid’s Dreams Rise in the Desert
on Vanity Fair * Related topics – Economy of Iraq * Related topics – Politics of Iraq {{DEFAULTSORT:Shabibi, Sinan 1941 births 2022 deaths Governors of the Central Bank of Iraq Iraqi economists Academics from Baghdad Iraqi Shia Muslims University of Baghdad alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Bristol