World Bank: We are discussing with the Iraqi government granting it a loan program for “financial rescue”.
World Bank: We are discussing with the Iraqi government granting it a loan program for “financial rescue”.
10-30-2026
The World Bank announced (Thursday, October 29, 2026) that it held a series of meetings with the Iraqi government to explore “opportunities to provide financial loans to Baghdad in order to develop a financial rescue program for the Iraqi economy.”
The bank, according to its spokeswoman Julia Kozak, said that the Iraqi economy is expected to shrink by 16% this year as a result of the economic difficulties resulting from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
She continued, “Iraq was already suffering from financial hardship before the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the strait, which caused significant economic repercussions, especially since Iraq now relies on a very narrow space to export its oil,” as she described it.
Kozak stressed that the World Bank is now looking into “the priorities of the Iraqi government and how it wishes to address economic difficulties and areas of weakness, and then move around how we can support it through a financial rescue lending program.”
It is noted that the Iraqi budget for the coming year 2027 suffers from a financial deficit estimated at about 40 to 50 trillion Iraqi dinars.
burathanews.com
