Baghdad/NinaToday’s newspapers on Tuesday focused on experts confirming that Iraq is on the cusp of a major transformation in economic thought and philosophy and the fluctuation of the exchange rate and its impact on food prices.
Al-Zawraa newspaper, published by the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, quoted the government’s financial advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh,
He stressed that Iraq is on the cusp of a major transformation in economic thought and philosophy, and while he pointed out that the establishment of the Private Sector Council represents a major and important signal for this transformation, he indicated that the six principles announced by the Prime Minister in the Netherlands represent the foundations supporting the partnership between the state and the private sector and the establishment of the economic vision. correct for the country.
Saleh told the newspaper, “Iraq has been suffering from a problem during the last twenty years, which is the loss of economic vision and it has been limited to oil rents, fluctuations in the cycle of oil assets, fear of falling prices, and mortgaging the economy on this dangerous cycle,” stressing that “the economic thinking of the Iraqi government in general has completely changed. Today there is A vision for a partnership between the state and the private sector. This partnership requires a stable economy, very stable regional and international relations, and the creation of attractive investment climates. The state’s economic approach is a partnership between the state and the private sector.”
He added, “On this basis, today there is a major project, which is that the state provides sovereign guarantees to the private industrial sector, especially industries related to infrastructure, the pharmaceutical industry, and the food industry. The approach is completely different.”
He stated that “the issuance of the Social Security Law requires strong implementation in order to change the true philosophy from a central rentier state that coexists on oil to a productive state with a guaranteeing social market. This is how the vision has changed. The country has abundant resources, but it is shackled to oil only. It only understands fossil fuels, as if we live and live by oil, and this is Wrong, so the economic philosophy in Iraq will leave this and I believe in the coming years the productive market will take its role, that is, the productive market institutions cooperating with the state and with the protection and partnership of the state will take the initiative in economic development and discovering enormous opportunities within the economy from idle natural resources to agriculture to manufacturing industry to important regional and international partnerships.” He expressed his belief that “Iraq is on the cusp of a major shift in economic thought.”
He warned that remaining “on financing through oil only, i.e. rentierism, and there is a crisis of unemployment and the sustainability of unemployment, and this is permanent, so economic activities must be diversified and created for the public use of resources.”
He pointed out that “the country’s population is increasing, and today the population is forty-five million, and after ten years it may reach sixty million. We are facing desertification and a water problem. For that day, the entire mentality has changed, and the state has entered into the issue of water technology in order to make agriculture sustainable, so it encouraged the system of water sprinklers and drip agriculture.” Which enables the cultivation of millions of dunams with small amounts of water to provide food security and thus usher in an advanced agricultural technological era.”
He explained that “the harsh conditions pushed towards the diversification of the Iraqi economy and the cohesion between the government economy and the private sector economy through the establishment of the Private Sector Council, which is headed by the Prime Minister, which is a major and important signal in the economic transformation in Iraq.” He stressed that “this stage is linked to the six principles that were announced.” The Prime Minister expressed it in his meeting in the Netherlands and envisioned the foundations supporting the partnership between the state and the private sector and establishing the correct economic vision for the country.
Al-Sabah newspaper paid attention to the fluctuation of the dollar exchange rate and its impact on food prices. It said that experts and specialists in economic affairs diagnosed a slight increase in inflation rates, mainly resulting from the fluctuation of the exchange rate, which led to an increase in the costs of some foodstuffs coinciding with the approaching of the holy month. ,
While they set inflation rates at 4.5%, they stressed that it is the lowest rate compared to neighboring countries, proposing, at the same time, the involvement of government agencies in commercial “competition” with the private sector, by opening more marketing outlets to control prices and limit their rise.
The newspaper quoted these experts as saying that, despite the slight increase in price rates, “the International Monetary Fund praised the economic stability witnessed by Iraq and the ongoing movements to support social protection.”
The newspaper quoted the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Ammar Khalaf, during the opening of the eighth annual exhibition and conference for finance and banking services, saying that the country faced during the past year a series of challenges, but the Central Bank faced them with high responsibility, as it was able, through various monetary policy tools and sound decisions, to achieve its set goals. In his law, in addition to achieving the general level of prices, by reducing the inflation rate, which reached 7.5 percent at the beginning of the year 2023 and decreased at the end to 4 percent.
The newspaper published a “report on price rates, where the data showed increases in annual inflation rates during January 2024 compared to the same month last year, represented by the food and non-alcoholic beverages section recording an increase of 0.8%, resulting mainly from an increase in food costs by about 0.9%, which includes… The prices of meat increased by 13.0%, sugar products by 4.8%, and fish prices by 4.2%.
The report issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Ministry of Planning also recorded an annual increase in tobacco prices by 7.1% and another increase in the communication section by 11.4%, while health prices rose by 3.3%, the entertainment and culture section by 9.9%, and the education section by about 4.2%.
In turn, the economic expert, Abdul Rahman Al-Sheikhli, believes that “the rise in the (slight) inflation rate is a temporary matter that may be related to the approaching month of Ramadan,” stressing that “government measures to open marketing outlets for citizens will work to reduce this increase.”
“rates”.
The expert Al-Sheikhli also expected that these inflationary indicators would not continue to rise in the future, citing the government’s economic moves, which were widely praised by the International Monetary Fund during its latest report, during which it indicated a decline in general inflation in Iraq at an acceptable rate compared to the past years.
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The economic expert, Manar Al-Obaidi, pointed out that “the rise in prices is due to global and local reasons, as the rise began globally since the Corona pandemic, which caused a global demand for various goods, and it led to an increase in prices and an increase in the value of shipping between countries, and then this was accompanied by war.” Russian-Ukrainian, especially since a large portion of food supplies originate from Russia and Ukraine, and this also has an impact, in addition to the recent crisis in Palestine and the threat to global trade.”
As for the internal reasons, Al-Obaidi goes on to say that “the rise in the exchange rate of the dollar against the dinar raised prices in parallel, as well as the scarcity of locally produced goods, especially foodstuffs, due to climatic factors that led to a decline in agriculture and a lack of supply compared to the rise in demand as a result of population density, and this leads to raising prices.” “.
Al-Zaman newspaper paid attention to the salaries of the Kurdistan region and said that the Ministry of Finance funded the Kurdistan region’s account with more than 130 billion dinars to pay the salaries of retirees and those covered by care, after the decision of the Federal Supreme Court to provide justice to the beneficiaries, similar to other provinces.
The Ministry said in a statement yesterday, “Based on the directives of the Prime Minister and the approval of the Minister of Finance, and based on what was stated in the letter issued by the Federal Supreme Court, we directed to take the necessary measures to deposit an amount in the current account in the name of the regional government, in order to disburse the entitlements of the disabled in the directorates of the Social Protection and Welfare Network.” and social development in Kurdistan for the month of February, noting that the amount was credited to our current account open with the Central Bank of Iraq),
He added that (another amount was deposited to disburse the entitlements of civilian and military retirees in the region for the same month), and pointed out that (the Ministry informed the Federal Court in its two letters that funding for salaries for the month of February last had been launched for the region, and that is because the resettlement mechanism requires a period of time for this month only, and it will not The salaries for the current month of March will be released only after the requirements for the localization of salaries are completed by the region, holding the regional government legally responsible for the validity and accuracy of the information and data submitted to the regulatory and legal authorities and bodies, and the responsibility for disbursing salaries to those actually entitled to them.
The statement stressed (providing it with a position on the extent of the region’s commitment to what was stated in the Budget Law in Articles 11 and 12 of the quantities of crude oil exported or received from the regional government on a monthly basis, and considering it as a work context followed every month without the need to approach you, provided that it is returned to our department as of the 25th of Every month, in addition to quickly providing us with a position on the quantities of crude oil exported or received from the regional government).
The head of the Parliamentary Regions and Governorates Committee, Kurdo Omar, said, “The committee intends to host Finance Minister Taif Sami to explain the reasons for not disbursing regional development allocations to the region’s governorates,” stressing that “there is a consensus in the committee on this matter.”
He added that (the committee is waiting to amend the budget law, especially since the other governorates suffer from the same problem, as a small percentage of these allocations were spent, reaching 30 percent in some governorates, and the reason is red tape and corruption), noting that (the regional development allocations amounted to 3 One trillion and 500 billion dinars in 2015, one trillion and 244 billion dinars in 2016, 375 billion dinars in 2017, 5 trillion in 2018, two trillion in 2019, and 4 trillion in 2021).
He continued that (the total allocations for regional development in 6 budgets amounted to 16 trillion and 120 billion dinars, and the region’s governorates’ share of it, according to a rate of 12.67 percent, amounted to more than two trillion dinars)./End
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