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Tishwash: Al-Sudani in Parliament.. The economic file is on the agenda and the numbers "highlight" the reality

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani will be a guest of Parliament today, Wednesday, at his request, for the first time in two years, as he will be under the dome of Parliament for only the second time as Prime Minister after the first time his government won confidence in October 2022, and while this hosting comes at the request of al-Sudani specifically, this means that he has a lot to show before the House of Representatives.

Although the talk about the situation in Syria and security in the region is the most prominent, as official statements say, the statements also indicated that the talk will include the economy, services, and the Sudanese government program.

It is well known that the space of "political bidding" in Iraq, especially in the past few years, is very profitable in the fields of economy and services, because it shows the political forces keen on the interests of citizens and some groups, so it is very expected that the parliament will witness talk and discussion about economic and service issues related to Al-Sudani's government.

Contrary to the sustainable crisis, non-oil revenues compete with oil revenues

When talking about the economy during Al-Sudani’s era, it witnessed many fundamental changes. In fact, some economic indicators were a “permanent blot” on the face of the Iraqi economy for 20 years, specifically non-oil revenues and the percentage they constitute of total revenues.

During the current year and until last September, non-oil revenues constituted 11% of total revenues and amounted to more than 12.4 trillion dinars, while oil revenues constituted 89%.

This percentage is absolutely unprecedented in the past years, when non-oil revenues did not exceed 5% of total revenues at best. In 2023, the percentage of non-oil revenues reached 7%, and in 2022 it reached 5%.

The second most persistent crisis is shaking up... Flared gas is declining

As for the flared gas, which is also one of the biggest economic crises in Iraq, the government has achieved an increase in the percentage of gas invested and stopped the flared gas.

Previously, Iraq was producing 2,700 cubic meters of associated gas per day, investing 1,500 cubic meters of it, and burning 1,200 cubic meters per day. Now, Iraq produces 3,000 cubic meters of gas per day, investing more than 2,000 cubic meters of it per day, and burning only 1,000 cubic meters, which means that the gas investment rate is 66%, while the burned rate is 34%, while in previous years the invested gas rate was between 50 and 55%, and the burned rate was between 50 and 45%.

Iraq exports derivatives, not imports them

In addition, the issue of exporting crude oil and returning to importing fuel and derivatives is one of the most problematic issues that were considered “shameful” for Iraq, as the second largest oil producer in OPEC imports oil derivatives, as Iraq used to import derivatives worth more than $3 billion annually.

Iraq was importing about 15 million liters of gasoline per day, 10 liters of kerosene per day, and about two million liters of kerosene per day.

But within less than two years, Iraq's import of kerosene and kerosene has stopped completely, and Iraq has even started exporting kerosene, while gasoline imports have decreased by about 70% from 15 to only 5 million, and it is hoped that gasoline imports will stop completely starting next year, with the completion of the opening of isomerization units in ongoing projects in some Iraqi refineries.

Years of debts... reduced by half in two years

One of the indicators that also worried Iraq was the debt file, but despite the fact that current and mandatory operating expenses increased significantly during the past two years to reach about 120 trillion dinars annually, and recording an actual deficit rate, the government balanced the borrowing story, so that external debts decreased by half within two years.

While external debt was about $20 billion in 2022, it decreased to about $16 billion in 2023, and recently decreased in 2024 to less than $9 billion.

Unemployment and employment crisis

The government has also taken pivotal steps regarding the unemployment crisis and the dual pressure on government employment. The legislation of the Social Security and Workers’ Retirement Law is one of the most important factors in the balance between the public and private sectors. From only 19,000 insured workers, the number of workers registered in Social Security and Workers’ Retirement has reached about half a million workers so far.

The measures related to employment and facilitating project support caused poverty rates to drop from 23% to 17.6%, and the unemployment rate dropped from 16.5% to 14.4%, according to the latest survey conducted by the Ministry of Planning, which lasted from mid-2023 to mid-2024. link

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Tishwash: Iraq's financial revenues exceed 114 trillion dinars in 9 months

The Federal Ministry of Finance revealed, on Wednesday, that the size of Iraqi revenues in the general budget during 9 months of the current year 2024 exceeded 114 trillion dinars, indicating that non-oil revenues amounted to 11%.

Shafaq News Agency followed up on the data and tables issued by the Ministry of Finance in December, for the accounts of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September of the current fiscal year, which showed that oil is still the main resource for Iraq's general budget, reaching 89%, indicating that the rentier economy is the basis of the country's general budget.

The financial tables indicated that the total revenues for the nine months of the current year amounted to 114 trillion, 349 billion, 735 million, 335 thousand, and 311 dinars, indicating that the total advances amounted to 15 trillion, 796 billion, 51 million, 63 thousand, and 162 dinars.

According to the financial tables, oil revenues amounted to 101 trillion, 944 billion, 446 million, and 923 thousand dinars, which constitutes 89% of the general budget, while non-oil revenues amounted to 12 trillion, 405 billion, 292 million, and 412 thousand dinars, which constitutes 11% of Iraq’s general budget.

For his part, economic expert Mohammed Al-Hasani told Shafaq News Agency, "The defect of the Iraqi economy is that it is rentier and depends mainly on oil, and that Iraq has not activated the customs tariff that contributes to raising financial revenues properly."

He added that "attempts to support the agriculture, industry and tourism sectors in order to be a second tributary to oil were timid, and each sector did not contribute more than 4% of the gross domestic product," calling for "activating a number of laws that encourage the local and foreign private sector to enter the Iraqi market, including customs tariff laws, consumer protection and anti-monopoly laws."

In March 2021, the Prime Minister's advisor for financial affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed to Shafaq News Agency that the reasons for the economy remaining rentier are due to the wars and the imposition of an economic blockade on Iraq during the past era, and the political conflicts we are witnessing today, which led to the dispersion of economic resources.

The continued reliance of the Iraqi state on oil as the sole source of the general budget puts Iraq at risk from global crises that occur from time to time due to the impact of oil on them, which makes the country turn every time to cover the deficit through borrowing from abroad or domestically, and thus indicates the inability to manage the state’s funds effectively, and the inability to find alternative financing solutions. link

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Tishwash: On the occasion of World Banking Day.. A call for a comprehensive review of the work of banks in Iraq