Low foreign exchange reserves in Iraq to 68 billion dollars
Low foreign exchange reserves in Iraq to 68 billion dollars
FEB 26, 2015
BAGHDAD / Ibrahim Saleh / Anatolia:
Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Thursday that the Iraqi Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves fell to reach $ 68 billion is due to the financial crisis plaguing the country.
Iraq had recorded an increase in foreign exchange reserves over the past years, until it reached the end in 2013 to about $ 77.7 billion, according to the latest economic report of the year issued by the Central Bank of Iraq in 2013, which means it declined by about $ 9.7 billion, down 12.5%.
Zebari said at a news conference in Baghdad, said that the financial crisis that has plagued Iraq due to the decline oil prices, and the expenses of the purchase of weapons, needed to meet the terror organization “Daash and military equipment.”
The decline in oil prices, which has fallen by more than 50% since June last, and until the middle of last month, close to the lowest level in six years, to put Iraq in predicament Mali due to its dependence on oil export revenues to finance more than 95% of budget expenditures.
The work of Iraqi forces and militias loyal to her and forces and Kurdish Peshmerga (province Army in northern Iraq) to regain control of the areas dominated by the “Daash”, and that air support from the international coalition , led by the United States, which launched air strikes on the organization sites for more than 5 months.
The Iraqi minister said that Iraq is suffering from a liquidity crisis to the lack of sufficient funds to cover the expenses, but he pointed out that the country did not collapse economically stressing that the government will work to reduce costs and the imposition of taxes on some services to contain the crisis.
He acknowledged the Iraqi Council of Representatives late last month for the 2015 budget of the country after reducing expenses by about 4 trillion Iraqi dinars ($ 3.43 billion) to reach 119 trillion Iraqi dinars ($ 102 billion) and a deficit of 25 trillion dinars ( $ 21.4 billion).
Iraq needs more money to fund large-scale military campaign against “Daash” organization, which controls large areas in the north and west of the country.
It also seeks to increase its oil exports to solve the problem of lack of liquidity, which is reinforced by the recent agreement between Baghdad and the region of northern Iraq to increase the region’s oil exports to calculate the Iraqi government.
The agreement, which was approved by the Iraqi Council of Ministers in December / last December that the province of northern Iraq to hand over at least 250 thousand barrels of oil a day to the federal government for the purpose of export, the export of 300 thousand barrels per day by Federal province of Kirkuk fields of government through oil pipeline in the territory of northern Iraq, as opposed to determine the region’s share of the budget by 17%.
But doubts began to hover around the implementation of the agreement after Prime Regional Government of northern Iraq, Barzani said in the middle of this month that the federal government in Baghdad can not meet its financial obligations towards the region as a result of the financial crisis in the country, stressing that in the absence of Baghdad’s commitment to send the agreed financial allocations to the region in turn would not commit to sending exports.
Nevertheless, Barzani said during a news conference after meeting with officials of the central government in Baghdad, said that the governments in Baghdad and Erbil are committed to the agreement signed between them.
He added that talk about the cancellation of the agreement words untrue.
raialyoum.com
