MP: Iraq’s 2024 budget faces a financial gap of 19 trillion dinars.
MP: Iraq’s 2024 budget faces a financial gap of 19 trillion dinars.
10-1-2025
Al-Maalouma / Baghdad..
Member of Parliament, MP Mustafa Al-Karaawi, confirmed on Wednesday that Iraq has been facing a real financial deficit since 2024, causing a large financial gap estimated at 19 trillion dinars, due to a clear discrepancy between revenues and spending.
Al-Karaawi said in a statement to Al-Maalouma Agency, “State revenues in 2024 amounted to about 137 trillion dinars, while total spending amounted to 156 trillion dinars, leading to a financial gap estimated at 19 trillion dinars.”
He added that “resorting to borrowing to cover this deficit, through issuing bonds or otherwise, will increase the financial burdens due to the interest resulting from it, which may exacerbate the current financial crisis rather than solve it.” He pointed out that “the financial liquidity currently available is very limited, which has led to delayed salary disbursements, suspension of bonuses, promotions, transfers, and service accounts, in addition to delaying the entitlements of a number of retirees.”
He pointed out that “many government departments are suffering from near-total paralysis due to the lack of sufficient operating budgets to cover expenses,” stressing that “the crisis is not related to the failure to secure salaries in principle, but rather to how they are distributed, as the disbursement of salaries depends on the actual revenues available in the public treasury and not on the presence of a fixed financial reserve, which often leads to their delay despite the existence of theoretical coverage.”
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