Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Saturday chaired the first meeting of the newly established Financial Stability Council, only hours after ordering its creation during his cabinet’s inaugural session.
The council includes Finance Minister Falih al-Sari and the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), Ali al-Alaq.
Al-Zaidi stressed the importance of financial stability and its impact on Iraq’s economic and development plans, calling for close coordination between the Finance Ministry and CBI. He also emphasized the need for financial decisions that support economic stability and strengthen the government’s service, development, and economic agenda.
What the Program Says?
Al-Zaidi’s ministerial program commits to establishing a Supreme Council for Financial Stability to coordinate between fiscal and monetary policy, the body that held its first meeting on Saturday.
The program assigns the council a specific economic agenda: financial discipline, restructuring of public expenditure, enhancing non-oil revenues, and digitizing revenue collection in cooperation with relevant international institutions.
On banking, the program commits to reform aligned with international standards, anti-money laundering compliance, and structured coordination between the Central Bank and the fiscal authority.
The council is one of three new economic bodies mandated by the program. The other two are a Supreme Investment Council for foreign direct investment, and a Generations Fund to preserve Iraqi citizens’ share of oil and natural resource revenues.
