Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq budget news – including the Iraq investment budget, Iraq infrastructure projects and more.
Falling oil prices have driven the Kurdish region of northern Iraq to the brink of bankruptcy. Government salaries have not been paid for months, and citizens are suffering - some are being forced to take second jobs. Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports from Erbil:
By John Lee. The Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), Ali Mohsen Ismail (pictured), has said that he expects Iraq’s foreign currency reserves to total about $60 billion by the end of the year. According to the report from Bloomberg, that is higher than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts, and sufficient to […]
Almost 75 percent of Iraq’s draft budget for 2016 is earmarked for operational expenditure, with 25 percent set aside for investment purposes, a lawmaker has said. He added that more than 6,500 government-sponsored projects are still on hold for a second consecutive year because of falling oil prices. The Iraqi government has already submitted the […]
By John Lee. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) may provide a large loan to Iraq to help stabilize the country's finances, a senior IMF official has told Reuters. Masood Ahmed (pictured), Director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, said an IMF team will discuss with Iraqi officials early next month how to […]
By John Lee. Iraq's Cabinet has approved a budget of 106 trillion Iraqi dinars ($91 billion) for 2016. The figures are based on crude oil output of 3.6 million barrels per day (BPD) at a price of $45 a barrel. Spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told The Associated Press that Iraq will run with a deficit of […]
By John Lee. Reuters quotes Iraqi Deputy Finance Minister Fathil Nabi as saying that Iraq has abandoned its plan to issue international bonds because the yield it would have to pay was too high. The required return on the bonds reportedly forced Finance minister Hoshiyar Zebari (pictured) to halt the plan to raise up to […]
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 […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that Iraqi officials are planning to start marketing a new Eurobond following the Labor Day holiday in the U.S., which falls on 7th September. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase are to be the lead managers for the deal, which is expected to be unsecured. Iraq is hoping to raise […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi government has reportedly appointed three major international banks to advise on its first international bond issue in almost a decade. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase will assist in placing $6 billion (7.2 trillion Iraqi dinars) of new government bonds, in an attempt to bridge the budget deficit. According to […]
Fitch Ratings issued its first rating on Iraqi sovereign debt, giving it the fifth-worst junk grade, due in part to the cost of the civil conflict and the global slump in oil prices. The rating comes as the country is planning a $5-billion bond issue towards the end of this year. The international ratings agency […]
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad. Assessing Government Spending This is an updated version of the last part (and the list of consulted references) of the research work commissioned by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), USA, as part of the preparation for NRGI’s strategic plan for interlinked and complementary interventions in Iraq during the upcoming three […]
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad. Midyear Review of the State Budget and Oil Export Revenues The State budget for 2015 was based on an oil export volume of 3.3 million barrels per day (mbd) and a price of $56 a barrel. Accordingly, oil export revenues were estimated to finance 83% of budget revenues. Despite marked improvement […]
