The Iraqi Ministry of Finance revealed, on Monday, that the volume of revenues in the federal budget during four months exceeded 42 trillion dinars, confirming that the oil contribution to the budget remains at about 89%.
Shafaq News Agency followed the data and tables issued by the Ministry of Finance this month, for the accounts of the months of January, February, March, and April for the current fiscal year, which showed that oil is still the main resource for Iraq’s general budget, as it reached 89%, which indicates that the rentier economy is the basis of the country’s general budget.
The financial tables indicated that the total revenues in the aforementioned four months amounted to 42 trillion and 725 billion and 409 million and 202 thousand and 38 dinars, and that the total expenditures with advances amounted to three trillion and 678 billion and 245 million and 511 thousand dinars.
According to the financial tables, oil revenues amounted to 38 trillion, 3 billion, 728 million, and 183 thousand dinars, which constitute 89% of the general budget, while non-oil revenues amounted to four trillion, 698 billion, 785 million, and 9 thousand dinars.
For his part, economic expert Muhammad al-Hassani told Shafaq News Agency, “Oil prices are subject to global fluctuations,” stressing that “the Iraqi government must take advantage of the financial abundance in the budget by developing the economic and agricultural sectors to reduce dependence on oil.”
He added, “Corruption and bureaucracy overwhelm most aspects of government institutions and prevent any economic development taking place in Iraq,” warning against “not diversifying the Iraqi economy as quickly as possible, which will make the Iraqi state unable to even pay the salaries of its employees in the near future.”
The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed in March 2021 in an interview with Shafaq News Agency, that the reasons for the Iraqi economy remaining rentier are due to the wars and the imposition of the economic blockade on the country 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 is a source of danger in the global crises that occur from time to time as oil prices are affected by them, which makes the country tend every time to cover the deficit through borrowing from abroad or within, and thus indicates an inability to manage… Effectively using state funds, and the inability to find alternative financing solutions.
shafaq.com
