Iraq News Highlights 6-21-2024
Parliamentary Committee: Amending The Investment Law In The Next Legislative Term
Time: 06/21/2024 Read: 78 times {Economic: Al-Furat News} A member of the Parliamentary Investment Committee announced the committee’s intention to amend the Investment Law.
Muhammad Al-Zayadi told {Al-Furat News} agency, “There is no investment in the country due to the lack of clarity in the investment law, which constitutes a major problem, but after the end of the legislative recess, the committee will work on amending the investment law.”
He added, “The political situation has nothing to do with the law because it is related to the service aspect, and the goal of amending the law is to be at the level of moral investment in the country.”
It is noteworthy that the Parliamentary Investment Committee justified its effort to amend some investment laws in order to attract foreign investments and capital because some paragraphs of the laws related to investment conflict with sustainable development in Iraq, including the Investment Law, the Companies Law, and others. Ragheed LINK
With anticipation for the opening of stock exchanges, dollar prices maintain their rise
Posted On06-21-2024 By Sotaliraq The dollar exchange rates are still maintaining their rise before the advent of Eid al-Adha and its close, amid great anticipation for the opening of the stock exchanges next Sunday, to know the level of the new prices.
In Erbil, the buying price of the dollar by exchange office owners was 146,650 dinars per 100 dollars, while the selling price was 146,750 dinars per 100 dollars.
In Baghdad, the dollar exchange rates exceeded 147 thousand dinars for every 100 dollars.
These prices were higher than the prices of previous weeks, as the exchange rate was less than 145 thousand dinars per 100 dollars. LINK
Between Oil And Debt: Iraq Faces The Challenges Of The Budget Deficit
June 21, 2024 Baghdad/Al-Masala Al-Hadath: The budget deficit for 2024 in Iraq constitutes a major challenge and reflects the gap between government revenues and expenditures, which imposes pressure on the national economy and leads to an increase in public debt.
Iraq relies on oil revenues as a main source of financing the budget. As oil prices fluctuate, it becomes difficult to predict revenues accurately.
Iraq resorts to borrowing to finance the deficit, which increases the size of public debt and negatively affects the cash reserves of central banks.
Economist Nabil Al-Marsoumi revealed the risks of the budget deficit for the year 2024, amounting to more than 64 trillion dinars.
Al-Marsoumi said in a blog post followed by Al-Masala, “The budget deficit amounted to 64.025 trillion dinars, as the revolving balance in the Ministry of Finance’s account reached 1.571 trillion dinars.”
He continued, “The increase in the selling prices of exported crude oil amounts to 16.607 trillion dinars,” noting that “remittances deducted from the legal reserve of government banks are equal to 5 trillion dinars.”
He added that “loans from government banks amounted to 3 trillion dinars,” noting that “the discount on treasury transfers at the Central Bank of Iraq amounted to 20.041 trillion dinars.”
He pointed out, “National bonds are worth 5 trillion dinars, and total internal borrowing reached 33,041 trillion dinars, and external loans amounted to 12,806 trillion.”
He stated, “Many observations were made regarding the budget deficit, including a decrease in the Ministry of Finance’s revolving balance from 23 trillion dinars in the 2023 budget to 1.571 trillion dinars in the 2024 budget.”
Al-Marsoumi added, “It has been observed that there is a heavy reliance on internal and external borrowing to finance the budget deficit, which exacerbates the size of internal debt, especially which currently stands at 79 trillion dinars, in addition to its negative impact on the cash reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq and other Iraqi banks.”
He concluded that “there are three sources in financing the budget deficit, which are deficit financing, internal and external borrowing, and the revolving balance of government accounts,” noting that “using the expected increase in oil revenues amounting to 16.607 trillion dinars to finance the budget deficit is something new because this increase is supposed to be added.”
The expected oil revenues. In this case, the budget will have been built on the assumption of exporting 3.5 million barrels per day at a price of $83 per barrel instead of $70, which is a non-conservative price and full of risks for two reasons.
The first is that Iraq’s oil exports are less than 3.5 million barrels per day due to OPEC+ restrictions. The second is that The high price of oil adopted by the budget is unrealistic and very optimistic, which may expose the budget to other imbalances as a result of these two assumptions not being met.” https://almasalah.com/archives/92260
Economic Clarification: Why Do Iraq’s Reserves Not Rise Despite The Rise In Oil Prices?
Money and business Economy News – Baghdad Today, Friday, economic expert Mahmoud Dagher explained the reasons for the failure of Iraq’s financial reserves to increase despite the rise in oil prices, while stressing that the country has no hope except by diversifying its output and pressuring spending, especially operational.
Dagher said in an interview with Al-Iqtisad News, “Reserves are not measured by size, but by adequacy, and there are two indicators of adequacy: the adequacy of reserves to cover imports without any exports, and I believe that it reaches Iraq with the existing reserve remaining for approximately 12 months, which is an excellent coverage of foreign reserves for exported currency.”
He added: “If we want to answer the question of why the reserves, which exceed 100 billion, do not increase despite the rise in oil prices, this is due to two reasons. The first is direct and is the result of the Central Bank’s sales rising to 300 million dollars per day to cover imports.”
He pointed out, “The second reason is indirect and results from the increase in public spending, especially the salary bill, which, along with retirement, subsidies, and nationals, has reached close to 100 trillion.”
The economic expert stated, “The adequacy of reserves is good; since Iraq is an oil economy, it is difficult to rely on adequacy alone due to the possibility of a decline in the price of a barrel.” https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=44468
World Bank: Spontaneous Gas Combustion Associated With Oil Production Is Rising
Arab and international Economy News – follow up A World Bank report revealed on Thursday that oil companies around the world burned the largest amount of natural gas associated with oil production last year in five years.
With only six years remaining to achieve the World Bank’s goal of stopping spontaneous flaring of gas associated with oil production, companies burned an estimated 148 billion cubic meters of gas in 2023, an increase of seven percent from 2022, despite crude oil production rising only one percent during the same period. Period.
Natural gas is usually produced from oil exploration, and some companies choose to burn this gas instead of capturing and storing it because providing the necessary infrastructure to deal with it is not commercially viable.
The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report on Spontaneous Gas Flaring stated that the growth in gas flaring has erased the effect of the reductions achieved in 2021 and 2022, and added that “global efforts to reduce spontaneous flaring of gas associated with oil production are not sustainable and there is a need to take urgent action.” “.
Eliminating this practice would reduce at least 381 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from harmful emissions released into the atmosphere.
Nine major oil-producing countries account for 75 percent of gas flaring and 46 percent of oil production.
These countries are Russia, Iran, Iraq, the United States, Venezuela, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria and Mexico, according to the order of the quantities of gas burned.
The report stated that Algeria and Venezuela reduced spontaneous combustion, but these gains were eroded by Iran, Russia, the United States, Libya and other countries.
The World Bank, in cooperation with the Colorado School of Mines in the United States, relied on data from satellites to calculate spontaneous combustion data.
https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=44445
Provoking Thoughts and Points To Ponder On Adversity:
Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances. – William James
It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams. – Ouida
It is grief that develops the powers of the mind. – Marcel Proust
Unless a man has been kicked around a little, you can’t really depend upon him to amount to anything. – William Feather
Troubles cured you salty as a country ham, smoky to the taste, thick-skinned and tender inside. – Marge Piercy
http://famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/adversity_quotes.html
