The Ministry of Finance revealed, on Monday, that the volume of Iraqi revenues in the federal budget during three months exceeded 30 trillion dinars, confirming that the oil contribution to the budget had decreased to 89%.
Shafaq News Agency followed the data and tables issued by the Ministry this May for accounts for the months of January, February and March for the current fiscal year, which showed that oil is still the main resource for Iraq’s general budget, as its contribution reached 89%, which It indicates that the rentier economy is the basis of the country’s general budget.
The financial tables indicated that the total revenues in the first three months amounted to 31 trillion and 187 billion and 625 million and 445 thousand and 38 dinars, and that the total expenditures with advances amounted to 3 trillion and 678 billion and 245 million and 419 thousand dinars.
According to the tables, oil revenues amounted to 27 trillion, 675 billion, 924 million, and 540 thousand dinars, which constitute 89% of the general budget, while non-oil revenues amounted to 3 trillion, 533 billion, 932 million, and 400 thousand dinars.
Economic expert Hilal Al-Taan said in an interview with Shafaq News Agency, “The percentage of oil is still high and Iraq’s economy is still a rentier economy that relies on oil as the sole source in its general budget.”
He added, “The government did not use the cash surplus to revive industrial and agricultural projects, but rather used it to create infrastructure, bridges and roads.”
He pointed to “the success of neighboring countries in developing their industrial and agricultural sectors and they have become a source for other countries, and Iraq is a consumer and importer from these countries.”
The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, confirmed in March 2021 in an interview with Shafaq News Agency, that the reasons for the economy remaining rentier are due to the wars and the imposition of the economic blockade on Iraq during the past era, and the political conflicts we are witnessing today, which led to… Dispersal of economic resources.
The Iraqi state’s continued reliance on oil as the sole source of the general budget puts Iraq at risk from the global crises that occur from time to time because oil is affected by them, which makes the country tend every time to cover the deficit through borrowing from abroad or within, and thus indicates the inability to Managing state funds effectively, and the inability to find alternative financing solutions.
shafaq.com
