The highest number since 2003.. Debt burdens Iraq: 110 trillion dinars, the general total!

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[size=52]The highest number since 2003.. Debt burdens Iraq: 110 trillion dinars, the general total![/size]

[size=45]Iraqi economic data confirm that the country's total internal and external public debt has reached the threshold of 110 trillion dinars, representing 29 percent of the gross domestic product, including an internal debt of more than 70 trillion at the end of 2023, rising by 1.5 percent compared to 2022, which is the highest number it will reach. Iraq's internal debt since 2003.[/size]
[size=45]The Future Iraq Foundation for Economic Studies (non-governmental) stated in its report that the highest growth rate in public internal debt occurred in 2020, as the debt jumped from 38 trillion at the end of 2019 to 64 trillion at the end of 2020, an increase amounting to 26 trillion dinars, with a percentage increase It reached 67 percent, and that public debt decreased relatively in the year 2022 and rose again in 2023 to exceed the barrier of 70 trillion Iraqi dinars.[/size]
[size=45]The financial advisor to the Iraqi government, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, confirmed that Iraq’s public debt doubled in the fiscal years 2020-2021 due to the lack of an approved budget for the Iraqi state.[/size]
[size=45]Saleh explained that in 2020, the Iraqi House of Representatives issued two legal pieces of legislation allowing the government at that time to grant financial loans exceeding 25 trillion dinars, in addition to legislating the Emergency Support for Food Security and Development Law.[/size]
[size=45]Saleh added that the borrowing was done internally, by issuing treasury transfers from the Ministry of Finance and selling them to government banks through the Central Bank, and the emergency support law for food security was also financed by borrowing treasury transfers, and these laws were added to other loans that caused the internal debt to double.[/size]
[size=45]Saleh suggested developing annual plans to gradually extinguish the debts or settle them and remove the burden because they are larger than the size of the external debt that Iraq must pay within the timetables, which may not exceed 25 billion dollars.[/size]
[size=45]According to the report of the Future Iraq Foundation, the internal debt was distributed between loans from commercial and government banks, which amounted to approximately 37 percent of the total debt, and 62 percent from the Central Bank of Iraq as obligations on government institutions, and the Iraqi per capita share of this debt amounts to about 1,700,000. One thousand dinars per person.[/size]
[size=45]The institution explained in its report that public debt represents 19 percent of Iraq’s gross domestic product, and if the external debt is added to it, amounting to 40 trillion dinars (about 30 billion dollars), the total debt amounts to 110 trillion Iraqi dinars, or 29 percent. percent of GDP.[/size]
[size=45]The report stated that the main problem is that most of these debts are operational expenses and not investment, meaning that these debts cannot be recovered from the investment projects that governments were supposed to launch, to contribute to increasing the domestic product.[/size]
[size=45]The report warned that the continuation of these debts without plans to repay them would cost the state budget additional expenses represented in the interest amounts that internal and external government institutions charge on these debts.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, financial and banking expert, Mustafa Hantoush, said that the volume of external debt owed by Iraq before and after 2003 amounts to about 70-75 billion dollars, and is subject to increase by the end of the current year, 2024.[/size]
[size=45]Hantoush added that Iraq's public debt to the Paris Club and external obligations is around 35 billion dollars, and may reach 50 billion dollars by the end of the current year, due to external obligations, contracts, and debt interest.[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that there are old debts owed by Iraq related to financing the Iran-Iraq war and other international obligations before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, ranging between 35 and 40 billion dollars, which are not scheduled in the Iraqi payment regulations, but they are registered with the Iraqi banks of Al-Rafidain and Al-Rasheed in the international debt regulations.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, economic researcher Ahmed Abdullah confirmed that there are many means that can be resorted to in order to address the problem of debt growth and its negative impact on the gross domestic product of the Iraqi state.[/size]
[size=45]Abdullah stated that the internal debts owed by the government are subject to settlement and are paid annually through the state’s revenues from oil revenues or revenues from other financial outlets, which does not affect the size of bank deposits.[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the issue of foreign debt and how to address it, Abdullah stressed that the Iraqi government is weak in making its strategic decisions and plans in terms of multiple means of financing national income and almost complete dependence on oil revenues that are subject to variables of supply and demand in the global market.[/size]
[size=45]He stressed the importance of legislating economic laws and decisions that enhance the multiplicity of means of national income and increase its gross product in order to achieve the highest amount of revenues.[/size]
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