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Mazhar Saleh: No salary crisis and financial reserves cover liquidity completely

 

1/1/2025

 

Mazhar Muhammad Salih, the financial and economic advisor to Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, denied the existence of a salary crisis in the country, stressing the existence of large financial reserves that cover the required liquidity.

 

Saleh said in a press statement that "there have been speculations recently about oil prices, a liquidity crisis, etc." He added that "at the end of the fiscal year, a financial audit takes place, and therefore there may be a slight delay in issuing salaries for a few days, according to accounting reconciliations."
The Prime Minister's advisor confirmed that "there is no salary crisis, and what is happening here and there in this regard is nothing more than fantasy."

The monthly salaries of employees were delayed in the last month of 2024, while it is customary for the Ministry of Finance to pay the wages of self-financing companies starting from the middle of each month, as well as for the members of the ministry and banks, while the salaries of other ministries are released starting from the 23rd of each month.

Regarding the size of the money supply outside the Central Bank, Mazhar explained that it is “around 100-105 trillion dinars,” noting that “the size of the money supply inside the banking system is less.”

He stressed: "We have large foreign exchange reserves that completely cover this liquidity, which is estimated at about $105 billion."

Iraq, OPEC's second-largest oil producer, relies heavily on oil revenues, with the hydrocarbon sector accounting for the vast majority of export earnings and about 90% of state fiscal revenues.

Iraq raised its budget in 2024 even after record spending in 2023 when more than half a million new public sector employees were hired.

The 2024 budget rose to 211 trillion dinars ($161 billion) from 199 trillion dinars ($153 billion) in 2023, with a deficit of 64 trillion dinars.

The government has adopted in the budget $70 per barrel as the price of oil in 2024, which is about $6 less than the weighted average price.

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