Iraq Faces Budget Cuts

Iraq's parliament has yet to approve the general budget for 2014 following a diverging dispute between the political blocs, in particular the prominent dispute over oil exports between the central government and Iraqi Kurdistan.

For his part, Ahmed Hama Rashid, a Kurdish member of parliament and member of the Iraqi parliamentary finance committee, denied the implementation of austerity measures in Iraq. He told Al-Monitor over the phone, “Implementing austerity measures must be discussed in parliament and the government has not yet called for such talks.”

However, Rashid said, “The finance committee will call for discussing the austerity plan in the coming weeks." He refrained from stating the amount allocated to defense spending out of discretion, but hinted that the cost may trouble the economic situation in the country.

He asserted that any austerity plans would not include the salaries of ordinary government employees, stressing that the plan must include the salaries of the three presidencies — the president of the republic, the prime minister and the head of parliament.

(Budget image via Shutterstock)