Oil revenues still dominate Iraq's public budget

Shafaq News / Iraq's state accounts for January of the 2023 fiscal year show that financial revenues exceeded 7 trillion dinars, while oil revenues accounted for 96% of the federal budget.

According to data and tables issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Finance, the oil sector remains the main source of the country's public budget, accounting for 96%, indicating that the rentier economy is the foundation of Iraq's general budget.

Through these financial tables, the total revenues until January amounted to 7 trillion 704 billion 682 million 471 thousand 813 dinars, after excluding transferable revenues of 2 trillion 955 billion 608 million 708 thousand dinars. The total spending with advances reached 5 trillion 731 billion 312 million dinars.

According to the financial table, oil revenues amounted to 10 trillion 285 billion 546 million 454 thousand dinars, which accounts for 96% of the general budget. Non-oil revenues amounted to 374 billion 744 million 725 thousand dinars.

In March 2021, the financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohammad Saleh, attributed the reasons for the Iraqi economy's reliance on oil to "the wars and sanctions imposed during the past era and the political conflicts we are witnessing today", and pointed out that this led to "a dispersion of economic resources".

The continued reliance of the Iraqi state on oil as the only source of the public budget puts the country at risk of global crises that occasionally affect oil, making Iraq increasingly resort to covering the deficit through borrowing from abroad or domestically, which indicates an inability to effectively manage state funds, and a failure to find alternative financing solutions.