MP: Iraq reports about $237M monthly pension funding gap
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq faces a monthly pension funding gap of 360 billion Iraqi dinars ($236.8M) that continues to increase monthly, Hussein al-Darraji, a member of parliament’s Finance Committee, told Shafaq News on Wednesday.
The committee hosted the director general of the National Retirement Authority on Tuesday to discuss the authority’s overall and financial situation, al-Darraji said.
Iraq has around 3 million retirees, including 1.81 million civilian retirees and 1.221 million military retirees, al-Darraji noted, explaining that between 7,500 and 8,500 employees retire each month. “The Finance Ministry supports keeping the mandatory retirement age at 60,” he said.
Salary payments in Iraq have faced financial pressures in recent months, with government employees and retirees experiencing payment delays due to liquidity shortages and declining revenues.
Iraq’s public finances are also facing a widening gap between state revenues and expenditures. Government data showed that the budget deficit reached approximately 30.4 trillion dinars ($20 billion) during the first eight months of 2026.
Finance Ministry data showed that Iraq spent 44.627 trillion dinars ($34.09 billion*) on public-sector salaries and social welfare in the first half of 2026, accounting for nearly 82% of total federal expenditure.
* The dollar equivalent reflects the exchange rate before Iraq devalued the dinar on Oct. 7, raising the official selling price of the dollar to 1,520 dinars from 1,320.
