Baghdad (UNA) – The Iraqi Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, announced yesterday, Saturday, that the country’s external public debt has decreased to $20 billion. Salih said that Iraq is recovering and will certainly live in 2022 without financial difficulties or financing restrictions caused by a lack of revenues, due to the recovery of the energy market and the boom in demand for oil, in addition to the increase in Iraq’s oil production by 400 barrels per day. He indicated that this addition to the current total oil production alone will generate an additional annual revenue estimated at about 17 trillion Iraqi dinars if the average price of a barrel of oil reaches $75. He pointed out that the issue depends on the total spending ceilings in the budget, and if it is assumed that the spending ceiling in the 2022 budget is the same as in 2021, and that the average price of a barrel of oil achieved throughout the year is not less than $75, then oil revenues alone will cover the total expenditures in the budget and achieve some surplus from the availability of other non-oil revenues. He added: This means that for the first time there will be a budget that achieves a financial surplus without the need for borrowing, and if borrowing is achieved, it will not exceed 3% of the GDP stipulated by the current Financial Management Law due to ongoing reconstruction projects whose financing is linked to international loans, adding: In my estimation, it does not exceed 3 billion dollars per year, in addition to the construction loan whose bonds are offered for public trading at a rate of one trillion dinars. (End)
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