Iraq News Highlights 6-14-2024
The World Bank Expects Iraq’s Economy To Grow In 2025
Posted On06-13-2024 By Sotaliraq The World Bank expects the Middle East and North Africa economy to grow by 2.8% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2025, due to the gradual increase in oil production and improved activity since the last quarter of 2024.
Expectations for 2024 are lower compared to what was expected in January, and this reflects the impact of extending oil production cuts on the ongoing conflict in the region, according to what the bank stated in its latest issue of the Global Economic Prospects report.
In Saudi Arabia, non-oil activities are expected to support growth rates in 2024, and the gradual resumption of oil activity is expected to lead to increased growth in 2025, according to the report.
In non-GCC oil exporting countries, the expected recovery in the oil sector in 2025 will help boost growth in Algeria and Iraq.
As for oil importing countries, the growth rate is expected to increase in 2024 to 2.9% and then to 4% annually in 2025-2026.
In Egypt, the growth rate is expected to increase due to investment growth, which was partially stimulated by the major deal concluded with the Emirates (Ras El Hekma), according to the report.
Growth is expected to remain stable in Jordan, although tourism-related activities will suffer in the short term.
In Tunisia, growth is expected to rebound, but activity in Djibouti and Morocco is expected to decline in 2024.
The economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is supposed to contract by at least another 6.5%, with the possibility of a contraction of up to 9.4%, in 2024.
In Syria and Yemen, the prospects appear not promising and shrouded in uncertainty due to the ongoing conflict, incidents of violence and internal unrest, and tensions in the Red Sea. LINK
Parliamentary Finance Identifies An “Important” Point That Hinders The Implementation Of The Budget
Money and business Economy News – Baghdad A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Moeen Al-Kadhimi, confirmed that the current year’s budget will be delayed as a result of the appeals submitted to the schedules, indicating the impossibility of implementing it without resolving all the submitted appeals.
Al-Kadhimi said, “The government was supposed to submit the budget schedules at the beginning of this year,” noting that “the delay in sending the schedules to Parliament is unjustified and has greatly affected the financial situation in the country.”
He added, “The government and the Ministry of Finance must send financial allocations to the governorates and ministries to begin implementing projects,” noting that “there is no reason to stop releasing financial allocations.”
Al-Kadhimi wondered “about the reasons for approving a tripartite budget if project funds will be stopped,” and thus this is a negligence attributed to the Ministry of Finance, adding that “projects of the Ministry of Education and Health and other state departments have stopped due to these errors in passing the general budget.”
He pointed out that “there is a parliamentary movement during this period in order to release financial allocations and develop solutions to the crisis so that it does not affect the work of the government and stop the wheel of reconstruction.” https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=44289
The House Of Representatives Sends The Decision To Approve The Budget Schedules To The Presidency Of The Republic
Friday 14, June 2024 | Political Number of readings: 356 The House of Representatives sends the decision to approve the budget schedules to the Presidency of 1132505-30b0f40d-a34a-4e4a-81f2-6a2c86ffb31d
Baghdad / NINA / The General Secretariat of the House of Representatives announced that the decision to approve the 2024 general budget schedules had been sent to the Presidency of the Republic for approval./End 5 https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?Key=1132505VB
Retroactively… Filing A Lawsuit Against The Ministry Of Finance Over The 2023 Budget
Baghdad today – Maysan Maysan Council member Hussein Al-Maryani confirmed today, Thursday (June 13, 2024), that a lawsuit had been filed against the Ministry of Finance due to an article in the 2023 Budget Law.
Al-Maryani said in an interview with “Baghdad Today” that “Article (2/First/5/B) of Budget Law No. (13) of 2023, which stipulates (when the selling price of one barrel of crude oil increases over the price fixed in the Budget Law) 30% of the increase in the price difference will be allocated to pay the late dues to the governorates.)
He added, “The price of a barrel of oil in the budget was $70, but the government sold oil at around $79, meaning there is an increase of up to $9 for each barrel, and the law is clear in its text about allocating 30% of the increase to pay the provinces’ dues.”
He pointed out that “30% of the provinces’ dues, including Maysan, were not paid, which prompted us to file a lawsuit in the Federal Court against the Ministry of Finance for violating the text of the above-mentioned article to recover our rights.”
The government set the price of a barrel of oil in the 2023 budget at $70, but it sold it for around $80, a price that was also fixed in the current year’s 2024 budget. LINK
Iraq And The United States Are Discussing Efforts To Form A Joint Business Council
Posted On06-13-2024 By Sotaliraq President of the Federation of Iraqi Chambers, Abdul Razzaq Al-Zuhairi, discussed with US Ambassador Alina Romanski efforts to form a joint business council.
The Union of Iraqi Chambers stated in a statement that “Abdul Razzaq Al-Zuhairi, President of the Union of Iraqi Chambers, received at the Union’s headquarters in Baghdad, the American Ambassador, Alina Romanski, and the two parties discussed strengthening trade and economic relations, and the intention to form a joint business council.”
Al-Zuhairi stressed, according to the statement, that “our relationship is balanced, with all countries that support Iraq’s approach to developing its economy, and we stand at the same distance from all countries for the good of Iraq.”
The statement indicated that, “During their meeting, the two parties reviewed the volume of trade exchange between the two countries, and the ambition to increase it to a level befitting the size of the relationship between Iraq and America, and discussed the prospects for cooperation and association with the Iraqi chambers of commerce, in order to expand the field of economic work and develop the work of the chambers of commerce.”
“In a way that enhances the economic partnership and opens the door to cooperation with the public and private sectors, pointing to the import and export sides and moving forward to enhance that.”
For her part, the ambassador stressed the need to overcome all difficulties regarding granting entry visas to investors and businessmen.
The two sides stressed the issue of mutual delegations in a way that meets the level of ambition, expressing their satisfaction in achieving the desire for joint cooperation at the level of commercial and economic work. LINK
Provoking Thoughts and Points To Ponder On Adversity
Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up against it. – Baltasar Gracian
They sicken of the calm that know the storm. – Dorothy Parker
Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes. – Henry J. Kaiser
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. – Woodrow Wilson
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become. – Brooke Foss Westcott
What does not destroy me, makes me strong. – Friedrich Nietzsche
I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is six to five against. – Damon Runyon
(Adversity is) the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free from admirers then. – Samuel Johnson
Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist – it reduces him to his fighting weight. – Josh Billings
http://famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/adversity_quotes.html
