Iraq cranks up spendings to 200 trillion dinars in the 2023 budget: lawmaker

Shafaq News/ Iraq will crank up spendings to a record 200 trillion dinars in the 2023 budget, lawmaker Nermeen al-Maarouf said on Friday.

"Recent revaluation delayed the submission of the budget bill," al-Maarouf told Shafaq News Agency, "the issue of the US dollar exchange rate in the budget is yet to be settled. The revaluation will be decisive here since it determines the amount of deficit in the budget, if there is any."

"The budget will expectedly go north of the 200 trillion dinars threshold. Of course, those numbers are merely speculations as the parliament awaits the official draft from the government," she said.

The prime minister's advisor for financial affairs, Mudher Salih, said the government is tweaking the price of an oil barrel in the budget between 75 and 65 US dollars, but the final decision is yet to be made.

"The cabinet will be deliberating over the matter in the next few days in order to add the final touches ahead of submitting the bill to the parliament," he said.