In numbers… Iraq continues to bleed its foreign currency reserves amid declining oil revenues
In numbers… Iraq continues to bleed its foreign currency reserves amid declining oil revenues
2026-05-17
Shafaq News – Baghdad
Recent financial data released by the Central Bank of Iraq on Sunday revealed a significant decline in the country’s foreign currency reserves, amid official and academic warnings of continued low oil revenues due to the security turmoil affecting energy supply chains in the region.
According to the Central Bank’s newly released official financial indicators, which Shafaq News Agency reviewed and compared with last week’s data, the bank’s net foreign assets continued their downward trend, decreasing from 125 trillion and 614 billion dinars on April 23 to 123 trillion and 269 billion dinars (about $93.3 billion) by the end of the same month.
The numerical comparison of the data indicates that Iraq’s foreign reserves recorded a sharp decline of 2 trillion and 345 billion Iraqi dinars in just one week, coinciding with the drop in other official reserves to 122 trillion and 780 billion dinars.
In this regard, economist Nabil Al-Marsoumi confirmed in a post on the social networking site Facebook that the continued decline in foreign reserves is due to the low oil revenues.
This comes in conjunction with a warning issued by Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair on Saturday, in which he indicated that the continued unrest in the region poses a risk to the smooth flow of energy supply chains through the Strait of Hormuz.
Khodair explained in a press conference that “Iraq used to export an average of 93 million barrels of crude oil per month before the conflict in the region ignited,” stressing that “the ministry was only able to export 10 million barrels of crude oil during the past month of April due to the current tensions.”
shafaq.com
