The spokesman for the Iraqi government, the name of Al-Awadi, announced on Monday that it has reduced the external debt and decreased to approximately $8.9 billion during the current year 2024.
Al-Awadi said in a statement, seen by “Economy News”, that “as an affirmation by the government of transparency in economic work, and to inform national and international public opinion and media about Iraqi economic performance, and in light of the approval by the Council of Ministers of the recommendations of the Diwan Order Committee 23942, related to the regulation of external borrowing of Iraqi public foreign debt, the government has taken a series of executive measures, and adopted a package of financial decisions, which ended in reducing external public debt by more than 50%, to reduce the debt from $1 19.729 billion in late 2022, to $15.976 billion in 2023, to nearly $8.9 billion this year.”
Al-Awadi explained that “these financial steps, (which included stopping a number of borrowing operations due to their relaxity and non-productivity, regulating, managing and auditing debts, and restructuring some debts and directing them to create strategic projects), aim not to mortgage the Iraqi economy to commitments that may affect, in the future, the political decision, or the path of national development, and they coincide with an urban renaissance, and reconstruction in infrastructure, which opens the way for a promising future and a refreshing economy, in which our current and future generations perform the best performance, and receive the greatest opportunities.”
He pointed out that “the government organized the process of financing cooperation with the international community in specific contexts, including direct and productive borrowing, providing sovereign guarantees to ensure the production of projects carried out by the private sector for the benefit of the government, and the sovereign guarantees provided by the government for the benefit of institutions that finance the Iraqi private sector importing production lines in order to build factories inside Iraq.”
He stressed that “these steps pave the way for the further integration of our country into the international economic cycle, and that the government adopts the principle of productive borrowing only, which effectively leads to an increase in GDP, and the financing of service and productive national projects with economic returns, in order to ensure their completion and not delay.”
Al-Awadi continued, “With these steady steps, the government renews its determination to continue to make a qualitative leap in the Iraqi economy, in parallel with a tangible development in the services, infrastructure and social welfare sectors, which are all the pillars required to meet the aspirations of our people throughout Iraq, and implement the government program with its priorities and objectives.”
