Concerns over Iraqi 2011 budget delay

[ronscarpa]

Concerns over Iraqi 2011 budget delay

AK News - Saturday, February 5th 2011 @ 8:26 PM

Baghdad, Feb. 5 (AKnews) - The Iraqi Central Bank (ICB) warned on Saturday the political blocs of delaying the approval on the 2011 budget as it will affect negatively the economic development in the country.

Muzher Mouhammed Saleh, the adviser of the ICB told AKnews that the delay of the budget will not affect the monetary policy of the country as it is part of the fiscal policy managed by the Finance Ministry and not the ICB.

The Iraqi government confirmed earlier that the existing gaps in the 2011 budget are old and taken from the mechanism adopted for restructuring of the budget in previous years.

The operational projects reach up to 77% of the total value of the public budget while the investment part reaches to 28%.

"The economic impact is not on the operational part of the 2011 budget which reaches to 1 / 12 of the operating budget for the previous year, but affect the investment part of the budget."

The Iraqi government approved the federal budget law for fiscal year 2011, where the budget is estimated by $ 79.6 billion dollars, after calculating the oil barrel with $ 73, and with export rate that reach to 2.25 million barrels per day.

"The major projects that the state sponsor including oil projects and others are not affected by the delay of the budget, but affected by the service projects that have direct contact with the lives of citizens."

The deficit of the budget is expected to reach to about $ 5 billion, while the spending rate is expected to be about 54.7 billion dollars.

The ICB announced that the Iraqi government can fill the deficit in the 2011 budget by borrowing from their deposits in government banks.

The Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has warned of a fiscal deficit that may confuse the completion of projects for 2011 in case the ICB did not pay the deficit in the general budget through its oil reserves.

Iraq, which is a member in OPEC, depends on oil revenues to finance about 95 % of its annual budget.

A number of MPs believe that delaying the budget more than the current time would disrupt the process of construction, and impede the movement of government and ministries.

The preparation of the financial budget and its approval was delayed due to the many objections and criticism on certain paragraphs, the most prominent is the financial allocations for some government institutions and the three presidencies.

The ICB revealed last October that the 2011 budget will raise the economic growth by 10%.

Reported by Saman Dazzayi

RN\GS AKnews

http://aknews.com/en/aknews/2/215980/

[smee2]

Thank you sir for posting ... good article, at least I think so but then ... hahahahaha

Take care

smee2

[tevye02]

Thanks Ronscarpa.

I think I'll take this one with two grains of salt and some pepper since it is from Saleh but good find.

[peejay67]

Sorry...I'm confused! I thought the budget had been read three times, passed and published in the gazette???

[katshamm]

The budget was finally approved