Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi economist Manar Al-Obaidi revealed new data highlighting the growing cost of Iraq’s legislative process over the past decade, showing that total spending on the Iraqi Parliament from 2015 to 2025 exceeded 5.5 trillion Iraqi dinars, while only 321 laws were passed during that period. This means the average cost of passing a single law in Iraq reached 17.1 billion dinars.
According to Al-Obaidi’s analysis shared via his official social media account, the current parliamentary term (2021–2025) marked the highest spending in Parliament’s history, with total expenditures reaching 2.4 trillion dinars. During this period, the legislature passed only 69 laws, which translates to an average cost of 35 billion dinars per law — double the previous term’s figure.
In contrast, the previous parliamentary term (2018–2021) saw 1.8 trillion dinars in total spending and the passage of 91 laws, meaning each law cost around 20 billion dinars to legislate.
Al-Obaidi noted a steady rise in parliamentary expenditures over the years, stating that annual spending increased from 450 billion dinars in 2015 to more than 650 billion dinars by 2025. Despite this rise, legislative productivity declined, with only 11 laws passed in 2025, at an estimated 60 billion dinars per law.
