Iraq may resort to borrowing to secure the salaries, MP says

Shafaq News / A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee revealed on Monday that the government will resort to borrowing to secure employees' salaries for the remainder of the current year.

A member of the committee, Ahmed Al-Jubouri, told Shafaq News agency, "the salaries of employees for September are secured and will be disbursed in the coming days".

He added, "The government will resort again to borrowing to secure salaries for the remaining months of this year 2020".

Al-Jubouri indicated, "the parliament has no choice but to approve the new borrowing to secure the salaries of employees for October, November and December", noting, "if the law reaches parliament, it will be discussed by the Finance Committee, and then it is presented for reading and voting".

Last June, Parliament approved a law granting the government to borrow five billion dollars from external sources and 15 trillion dinars from domestic borrowing by authorizing the Minister of Finance to issue treasury transfers and bonds.

Iraq is struggling to secure employee salaries and other operating expenses due to the financial crisis caused by the low oil prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has paralyzed large sectors of the world’s economies.

Iraq relies on oil sales revenues to finance more than 95 percent of state expenditures.