Iraq still relies on oil to fund its budget, Offical data

Shafaq News/ The Ministry of Finance reported that Iraq relies on oil to fund 95% of its state budget for the first ten months of 2022.

The Ministry's Data for October 2022 showed that the oil revenues amounted to 136,262,085,482,091 dinars.

According to the Ministry, the budget surplus for October is 43,372,231 million dinars (about 30 billion dollars.)

In this regard, the financial expert, Muhamad Al-Husni, told Shafaq News Agency that Iraq must start introducing other industries to stop depending on oil in the fiscal budget.

Earlier, the financial expert, Hilal al-Taan, said in an interview with our Agency that Oil prices are affected by international economic, political, and health fluctuations; therefore, other countries now resort to manufacturing as a dynamic sector, noting that Iraq will "miss the opportunity for progress and prosperity without operating these funds. As a result, the future of generations will be lost."

It is worth noting that in 2020, the Iraqi government, headed by Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, adopted the so-called "White Paper" for Economic Reform, which aims to place "Iraq's economy on a path that allows the state to take appropriate steps in the future to develop it into a diversified, dynamic economy." Yet, such reforms receive attention during economic recessions and get postponed when oil prices and profits are high.