Budget 2016 and the Risk of Slipping into Debt Trap

By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.

Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Budget 2016 and the Risk of Slipping into the Debt Trap

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) prepared the draft budget law for 2016 and submitted it to the Cabinet for deliberation and approval.

If the Cabinet approves the draft, as is, it will be forwarded to the Parliament for debating and enacting the related law.

It is unlikely the process go smoothly, since revisions and amendments are expected from both the Cabinet and the Parliament.

Hence, the aim of this brief intervention is to highlight the main features of the budget and assess its viability within the current and continuation of the fiscal crisis, which the country is suffering from since, at least, mid-2014.

Please click here to download Ahmed Mousa Jiyad's full report.

Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: [email protected], Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad).