S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Iraq\u2019s Council of Ministers wrote in major fiscal reforms into its budget for next year. It got lauded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a press release last week on the Iraqi economy. Pictured above is the national capital Baghdad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile difficult, these reforms, combined with the recently announced devaluation of the exchange rate, are critically important steps to help reduce Iraq\u2019s large external and fiscal imbalances and ensure the country\u2019s economic stability,\u201d IMF Iraq mission chief Tokhir Mirzoev said.<\/p>\n
Iraq\u2019s ongoing financial issues have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic and by plummeting oil prices. According to the IMF, \u201cthe authorities\u2019 efforts to put in place fiscal and monetary policy reforms combined with significant strengthening of the social safety net are critical to ensure Iraq\u2019s economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mirzoev said \u201cauthorities\u2019 plans to significantly increase targeted cash transfers to the poor as well as to enhance the health-related spending will be essential to mitigate the impact of the COVID crisis on the most vulnerable,\u201d the IMF argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile providing relief from immediate financial tensions, the authorities\u2019 short-term plan will need to be followed up with further reforms, including deeper structural reforms, to strengthen economic resilience, create further fiscal space for critical reconstruction and social spending, and lay the ground for higher, job-rich and more inclusive medium-term growth,\u201d mission chief Mirzoev argued.<\/p>\n
Iraq is faced with \u201csevere fiscal financing constraints and challenges with meeting external and domestic payment obligations, including wages and pensions.\u201d The IMF is \u201cready to support the authorities\u2019 reform efforts at this challenging juncture,\u201d Mirzoev was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
Iraq\u2019s economy is heavily reliant on oil, which accounts for 80% of revenues. In addition to low oil prices, the country\u2019s economy is plagued by conflicts and the fight against extremist groups. Strides have been made recently towards building a government, elections, and local law.<\/p>\n
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Iraqi administration wrote in major fiscal reforms into its 2021 budget in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and of low oil prices on the population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2316,"featured_media":286515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[10545,1988,591,18624,1989,18625],"class_list":{"0":"post-286524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-economy-en","9":"tag-imf","10":"tag-iraq","11":"tag-precos-petroleo-iraque","12":"tag-reforms","13":"tag-tokhir-mirzoev"},"wps_subtitle":"The Iraqi administration wrote in major fiscal reforms into its 2021 budget in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and of low oil prices on the population. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}