On Tuesday, the federal budget revenues for Iraq’s first half of the year exceeded 65 trillion dinars, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Finance. Oil remains the first source of income for the public budget of Iraq.
“Total revenues achieved during the first half of this year have reached 65,921,901,657,850 dinars (about 50.5 billion USD),” the financial tables said. Added to this is the amount that was borrowed, which amounted to 15,954,981,637,865 dinars.
Data were made available from January to July 2024, and oil brought in 58,803,897,993 thousand dinars, while non-oil revenues brought in 7,118,703,763 thousand dinars.
“Without a certified and serious enactment of the confidential area and carrying out profound underlying changes across the economy — including decreasing the state’s job and strength, taking out rentier rehearses, and modernizing and incorporating it into the worldwide economy — there is no prompt answer for forestall a reasonable monetary breakdown,” said financial master Mohamed Al-Hassani.
He further went to say that “within a few years at most, the state will be unable to meet its expenses and will face the risk of bankruptcy and economic collapse” had the rate of spending been maintained.
According to the Financial Advisor to the Prime Minister, Muzhar Mohammed Saleh, the persistence of the rentier economy dates back to the past wars, economic sanctions, and continuous political conflicts in March 2021, which dispersed the available economic resources.
