When Will The Government Resort To Amending The Budget Law? An Economic Expert Explains, 12 SEPT

 Economic: Al Furat News} The economic expert, Abdul Rahman Al Mashhadani, clarified the date of the government’s resort to amending the financial budget.

Al-Mashhadani told {Euphrates News} that: "Despite the decline in oil prices, Iraq does not face a problem in the 2024 budget, as 8 months of the fiscal year have passed, and the situation is normal with oil prices rising above $70 per barrel."

He added, "Also, the report issued by the Ministry of Finance for the first 6 months had total spending of 58 trillion dinars, while it was supposed to be 105 trillion dinars for the first half of the year."

Al-Mashhadani added, "The largest part of the spending was for operational expenses, which amounted to 53 trillion dinars, and 5 trillion for investment expenses, and the remaining 4 months of the year can pass easily and without problems, and salaries and wages are secured considering that oil revenues cover the need."

"In addition to the government's continued existence of financing means that it has not yet used, such as deficit financing means, which were planned to be 64 trillion dinars deficit, with the Central Bank contributing 22 trillion dinars of it, government banks covering 3 trillion and treasury bonds,

 in addition to the existence of 14 trillion dinars in revolving surpluses, in addition to the existence of a legal authorization for the government to borrow domestically to secure its general budget, and this reassurance is present in 2024," Al-

Mashhadani pointed out. "If prices continue to decline and fall to higher levels of up to $55 per barrel or $60 in 2025, this will push the government to submit different data that will seek to reduce investment expenditures as happened in previous crises and stop the investment aspect, which is now considered to reach 45 trillion dinars."

He continued, "In addition to reducing non-essential operating expenses such as commodity and service requirements, which are spent at 17 trillion dinars annually and were not spent in the first half of the year, the government will also focus on securing governing expenses such as salaries, wages, pensioners' salaries, and the social protection network, which amounts to 90 trillion."

Al-Mashhadani continued, "In addition, purchasing food basket items, gas, and medicines for 10 trillion dinars, in addition to the interest and installments of the public debt, which consists of two parts, the simple part of which is the external debt, which has decreased to 9 trillion, and thus the interest and installments that will be due from government agencies such as the Central Bank and government banks, and its payment can be postponed."

He explained that "the governing expenses of wages and oil production costs and all these expenses will be around 145 trillion dinars, and this is what will determine government spending," noting that "if the problem becomes more complicated, the government can resort to other methods such as imposing taxes on salaries {the nominal salary} only and not on the total because the allocations constitute two-thirds of the general salary."   LINK