Iraq announces a decline in its external debt and a rise in its domestic product
Mawazine News – Baghdad
The technical adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Sahib Al-Daraji confirmed on Thursday that the volume of investments in Iraq reaches about 60 billion dollars, while he revealed a decrease in the external debt to 9.8 billion dollars.
Al-Daraji said in a statement to the official agency and its follow-up (Mawazin News): “Iraq’s GDP exceeded $260 billion, which makes the ratio of external debt compared to the domestic product at a very low level,
which opens the door to a new stage of external financing, but on well-thought-out terms,” pointing out that “Iraq’s external public debt has witnessed a significant decrease, falling from $20.9 billion to $9.8 billion dollars.” He stressed the importance of financing being directed towards productive projects capable of repaying their debts on their own, rather than focusing on consumer or unconstidered projects.
Regarding current investments, Al-Daraji pointed out that “the volume of local and foreign investments in Iraq is about 60 billion dollars, most of them in the real estate and housing sector, which is good,” stressing the need to strengthen the role of the Iraqi investor and support the diversification of investments. He pointed out that “there is a large monetary mass among citizens outside the banking system, which makes it economically useless if it remains stored in homes,” calling for “transferring these funds into investment projects that contribute to converting them into assets that support the national economy and promote sustainable development.”
