Location: Baghdad – Iraq
Language: Arabic
Voice: Natural
Duration: 00:04:46
Source: A24
Restrictions: A24 Clients
Dateline: 26-02-2022
Storyline:
The internal debt of the Iraqi government, through borrowing from public sector banks, has reached record levels, totaling 68 trillion Iraqi dinars with soft interests resulting from those loans.
The war against ISIS about six years ago was the most visible reason for this debt. It also grew during the pandemic due to the high operating budget.
Economists estimate that the internal debt is worth at least fifty billion dollars. They added that the solutions lie in liberalizing the economy from centralization towards a market economy in the institutions of the Ministry of Finance.
Shot list:
(SOUNDBITE) Dr. Mahmoud Dagher – Financial and banking expert:“The data at the end of 2021 shows that the internal debt reached 68 trillion Iraqi dinars. The government was not very serious about reducing this debt. The debt is short-term and it does not pose a threat to the size of the GDP. The relative sustainability has been achieved, but this debt should not grow.”
(SOUNDBITE) Dr. Mahmoud Dagher – Financial and banking expert:
“The government has maintained the government salaries, the size of the huge operating budget, and the size of military spending. The spending on the army, the police, the Ministry of Interior, Defense, the Mobilization, and special missions amounts to approximately 30% of the public budget, and therefore it is difficult, to repay large debts.”
(SOUNDBITE) Dr. Safwan Qusay – Economist
“Iraq’s internal debts have risen during Covid to no less than fifty billion Iraqi dinars. The financial policymaker is supposed to reconsider the possibility of paying these internal debts by reducing the ownership of the Ministry of Finance in many public facilities. We can liberate the Iraqi economy and reduce internal debts. The process of reducing the internal debt means increasing the confidence for local, regional and international investment because such an indicator means that the economy of Iraq is recovering, and if the properties of the Ministry of Internal and External Finance are released through partial privatization, it can contribute to the process of a positive view of the Iraqi economy.”
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