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Demand for the dollar was dramatically up in the Iraqi Central Bank's auction on Thursday, reaching $164.635 million compared to $54.635 million on Wednesday.

"The demand hit $10.665 million in cash and $153.970 million in foreign transfers outside the country, all covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,200 Iraqi dinars per dollar, one tick lower than yesterday," according to the central bank's daily bulletin which was received by Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).

The 16 banks that participated in the auction offered to sell $2.550 million, which the bank bought at an exchange rate of 1,198 dinars per dollar.

In an exclusive statement to VOI, Ali al-Yasseri, a trader, said that cash demands rose as expected on Thursday, on which traders pay their bills. However, the drop in the exchange rate was a surprise that urged traders to increase their foreign remittances, driving up the overall demand for the dollar to three times that of yesterday.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.