Shafaq News / The Parliamentary Economic and Investment Committee revealed, on Wednesday, that Iraq paid $ 5 billion in interest for foreign loans for the year 2019.

Committee member Ali Saadoun told Shafaq News Agency, "The government's resort to external borrowing is a mistake and a crime against the Iraqi economy, and may cause the country's economy to collapse in the next stage," noting that "the previous government paid five billion dollars through the 2019 budget, as benefits for foreign loans Which successive governments have approached in Iraq.”

He explained that "resorting to external borrowing without a real study will cause large financial benefits."

the Iraqi Council of Representatives approved, at the end of last June, a bill that allows the government to borrow internally and externally to fill the financial deficit in the country.

The government had submitted the bill, which includes external borrowing of $ 5 billion, and internal borrowing of $ 15 trillion to bridge the country's fiscal deficit.

 The Iraqi government is struggling to secure employee salaries and other operating expenses due to the collapse in oil prices and to the Coronavirus pandemic.