Security Situation Weighs on Iraq's Economy

Ali said, “The plan to determine poverty rates will be conducted based on specific standards [that point to ways the ministry] can reduce this scourge, which has worsened this year because of the security situation.”

Hindawi said that the ministry “already has a plan to eradicate poverty through some projects [in cooperation] with other ministries. Yet there are reasons impeding [the plan’s] implementation, most notably the current economic situation in Iraq and some of [the] budget cuts for some projects.”

Emad Abdullatif, an independent economic and academic researcher, said, “All proposed solutions to reduce poverty in Iraq are temporary and are based on the distribution of oil rents. With the collapse of oil prices, they will subsequently collapse, and the poverty and deprivation circle in Iraq will widen.”

Abdullatif told Al-Monitor, “Any arrangements based on the government’s temporary material support make no sense, even if the necessary allocations are available in the general budget, because they consist of channels to legitimize corruption and waste public money.”

Skyrocketing poverty rates add to the calamities befalling Iraqi society. The Iraqi government’s neglect of the spreading of poverty, especially amid the rise in the number of orphans and widows, may lead to new challenges, such as the disintegration of society, which will naturally spike illiteracy, unemployment and crime levels.