Economic stagnation sweeps the markets in conjunction with Eid Al-Fitr

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[size=52]Economic stagnation sweeps the markets in conjunction with Eid Al-Fitr[/size]

[size=45]The countdown to Eid al-Fitr has begun, but this year it is more difficult than its predecessors and represents an unprecedented challenge for the poor and low-income class, with the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation expecting the poverty rate in the country to rise to 25 percent. The ministry says through its spokesman, Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, on April 11, 2022,[/size]
[size=45]The last statistic of poverty rates in Iraq in 2019, before the pandemic, recorded approximately 22.5 percent. Al-Hindawi’s expectations were accompanied by an economic stagnation in the markets with the weak purchasing power of citizens with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, due to the high exchange rates of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, and the global food crisis that followed as a result of the war in Ukraine, which caused an unprecedented rise in the prices of basic materials and commodities. holiday requirements. The repercussions of the war caused the price of a liter of oil to rise to more than 4 thousand dinars, after it was 2500 dinars, before the crisis, while the price of a bag of flour (50 kilograms) became 50 thousand Iraqi dinars, after it was less than half, and this sparked popular anger. In the Iraqi street.[/size]
[size=45]suffering[/size]
[size=45]Umm Omar, a Baghdadi woman, believes that “the atmosphere of Eid al-Fitr for this year is different from previous years due to the economic and political crises that the country is witnessing.” It also asserts that "the failure to pass the draft federal budget law for the year 2022, and the spread of corruption also greatly exacerbated the suffering of Iraqis, which prompted many of them to refrain from buying clothes and Eid needs because of their inability to do so."[/size]
[size=45]While Abu Saleh, a resident of the Karrada district in central Baghdad, says that “the prices are very high, nothing can be bought. The high exchange rates of the dollar and poor economic plans greatly affected the movement of the market and increased the suffering of citizens.” Abu Saleh, a father of three children, did not hide his fears of "the deterioration of the country's conditions during the coming days in the event that the formation of the government continues to be disrupted and the competent authorities control the markets." It is not only the economic measures that burden the poor class, but also the failure of the Ministry of Commerce to fully provide the monthly ration materials, which were covering a small part of their needs, especially during the month of Ramadan, according to specialists.[/size]
[size=45]High rates of poverty[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the economic expert, Nasser Al-Kinani, told (Al-Mada), that “the Iraqi markets, and the significant rise in the prices of basic materials, have greatly exacerbated the suffering of the citizens, while government plans failed to contain the situation,” stressing that “indicators of unemployment and poverty are liable to rise in an unusual way. unprecedented unless there is a serious government move to control the market and support the poor and low-income segments.” “There is no choice but to invest to absorb unemployment, and there is no alternative but to revitalize the private sector. Iraq ranks among the richest countries in the region, but the situation is worse according to statistics,” says Al-Kinani, who also confirms that “the absence of job opportunities and the state’s helplessness in the face of corruption contributed, in The spread of poverty in the Iraqi society, which is the country that owns the second largest oil reserves in the world.” In the latest report of the World Food Program of the United Nations, the poverty rate among Iraqis reached more than 31%.[/size]
[size=45]The representative of the program in Iraq, Ali Reda Qureshi, said, in a press statement, that "the depreciation of the dinar affected the purchasing power of fragile communities, after the increase in the prices of basic food and non-food items, including wheat flour and vegetable oil," noting that "low harvest rates in areas where It depends on rainwater as a source of irrigation during the 2020-2021 agricultural season, which has exacerbated the currency collapse crisis.”[/size]
[size=45]In the midst of these international allegations, the Iraqi government has, for years, followed a social welfare system to help the groups most in need of support, such as the elderly, divorced women, widows and the unemployed. Under this system, more than 1.6 million Iraqis were included until 2021, receiving material support ranging from $70 to $170 per month, in addition to the launch by the Ministry of Planning, a new 5-year strategy to address poverty in Iraq that complements the previous strategy, which expires in 2022. In reference to the strategies adopted by successive Iraqi governments after 2003, the first strategy focused on reducing poverty in Iraq. 2010-2014 stressed that four basic challenges must be dealt with: ensuring security and stability, ensuring good governance, ensuring distributive justice and diversifying sources of income in a market economy, and mitigating the negative effects of reform.The second strategy for poverty reduction in Iraq 2018-2022 emphasized that these challenges are still present, and the government should continue to commit to dealing with them through policies and procedures to confront them as a necessary condition to achieve the desired goals of the strategy.[/size]
[size=45]Despite the existence of those strategies that did not take the right path in implementation, official figures say that the poverty rate in Iraq has exceeded 22.5%, but international and non-governmental organizations speak of at least double this number.[/size]
[size=45]Governmental reasons[/size]
[size=45]In turn, the spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, told Al-Mada that "the planning aims, through the new strategy, which extends for 5 years, to reduce the poverty rate to 15-16% during the coming years, and the poverty level may reach 10% or less." From that until the end of the ministry’s plan for sustainable development in 2030.” Al-Hindawi asserts that “the poverty rate during the previous years reached 23 or more as a result of the force majeure conditions imposed by the Corona pandemic in those years.”[/size]
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