Iraq News Highlights and Points To Ponder Sunday AM 6-23-24
Iraq News Highlights and Points To Ponder Sunday AM 6-23-24
After The Decline In Inflation Rates... Economic Calls To Improve Financial Policy Management In Iraq
Money and business Economy News – Baghdad Today, Sunday, financial specialists called for the need to improve financial policy management in Iraq after it witnessed a decline in inflation.
Financial expert Abdullah Al-Bandar said, “The International Monetary Fund was optimistic about Iraq due to recording a clear decline in inflation during the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2023,” indicating that “economic policies in Iraq are going well and that the government is taking into account Fund directives regarding this.
He added, "The IMF's assistance to Iraq is usually conditional on the extent of Iraq's commitment to its directives and advice. Therefore, the government and relevant parties must move towards improving the management of financial policy in Iraq and making it consistent with monetary policy, since our monetary policy is dependent on oil revenues."
Al-Bandar called for "the need to focus on developing non-oil economic sectors because they are very few compared to oil revenues, such as developing border crossings and developing the customs law, as well as the private sector's contribution to the domestic product, and reconsidering the customs tariff because Iraq is an importing country."
For his part, financial expert Manar Al-Obaidi explained in a post on his Facebook account, “One of the most important economic standards that countries always take into account in determining their data, because of its important role in formulating the country’s economic policy, is the monthly and annual inflation rates, which plays a role.”
It is important in the overall daily life of the citizen and in the various economic sectors,” noting that “according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the annual inflation rates in Iraq decreased from 4.5% at the end of 2023 to reach 1.6% in March 2024.”
Al-Obaidi added, “Countries seek to reduce inflation rates according to their economic policies, as some countries try to target fixed inflation rates that do not increase or decrease, while others are looking for high inflation rates, especially producing countries, and they differ according to the economic policy of each country,”
pointing out that In Iraq, “there is no clear target for inflation rates except for one phrase mentioned in the strategic development plan that talked about keeping the inflation level below the 10% level.”
Al-Obaidi explained that "the decline was not the result of a significant increase in prices, but rather is due to three basic factors that contributed to the inflation rates reaching these rates, which are considered among the lowest levels of inflation in the world and the Middle East."
He stated that "the first level is a change in the weights of goods, as the process of determining inflation depends on determining a weight that represents the relative importance of each commodity, meaning that the importance of bread to the citizen is not the same as the importance of clothing, for example. Therefore, the weights vary according to the importance of the commodity.
At the beginning of 2024, the Central Bureau of Statistics changed the weights." For each commodity, the relative weight of some commodities was increased, such as food, beverages, tobacco, education, and health, in exchange for reducing some of the relative weights of other goods and services, such as housing and transportation, which includes fuel, for which the price of improved fuel was raised in 2024, in addition to household equipment.
This change played an important role in Reducing the inflation rate because some of the goods whose weights were increased did not increase much compared to those whose weights were reduced.
He continued, "With regard to the second level, it is changing the year of measurement, as the year of measurement in which a standard price was set for each commodity or product was the year 2012. The year of measurement was changed to the year 2022, and the increase or decrease in the prices of goods and services became dependent on the standard prices in 2022, not 2012, and this is The change greatly affects inflation rates in a way that reduces inflation rates,”
pointing out that “the third level is represented by the decline in the prices of some foodstuffs, such as bread, dairy, fruits, and drinks, which now represent approximately 31% of the total inflation account, and thus their decline or rise plays a fundamental role in Determining inflation levels. Therefore, general inflation decreased to 1.6%, while core inflation reached 2.7%.
Al-Obaidi wondered, “Why specifically were major changes made, whether at the level of weights or at the level of the base year, in 2024, during a critical period when there are radical changes in monetary policy and financial policy?” And why was the year 2022 adopted as a measurement year?
Is it really suitable to be a measurement year, especially since it is A year that comes after the Corona crisis, in which the world witnessed global inflation of various commodities, and it was not a year of global stability?
He concluded his speech by saying, “What we aspire to is for the data issued by various official bodies to be highly reliable and in line with the reality of the situation in order to formulate economic policies based on analyzing the gap between what is currently on the ground and the target value. No one can imagine.” The reaction of any citizen when you inform him that prices rose only 1% compared to the previous year.” Views 68 Added 06/23/2024 - https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=44523
The World Bank Expects Economic Growth In Iraq To Reach More Than 5% In 2026
Money and business Economy News _ Baghdad The World Bank expects that Iraq will achieve economic growth of more than 5% in the year 2026, indicating that the recovery in the oil sector in 2025 will work to enhance growth in Iraq.
The bank said in a report seen by Al-Iqtisad News, “Iraq’s economic growth for the year 2022 reached 7.6%, and in 2023 it decreased to - 2.9%.”
He expected Iraq's economic growth to decline in 2024 to reach 0.3%, to achieve growth in 2025 of up to 3.8%, and to achieve growth in 2026 of up to 5.3%.
The bank's report indicated that oil-exporting countries outside the Gulf Cooperation Council will help the expected recovery in the oil sector in 2025 boost growth in Iraq and Algeria Views 62 06/23/2024 - https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=44528
Government Advisor: The Budget Imposed Discipline In Expenditures And Diversification Of Revenues
Economical 06/23/2024 The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr. Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, said that the budget for the current year 2024 has a number of advantages that will increase rates of sustainable development, raise the pace of projects, and diversify sources of funding, indicating that oil price estimates in the budget are still higher than the specified price of $70 per barrel, by A change of more than 16 percent, while he indicated that the budget has high discipline in maximizing non-oil revenues, especially tax and customs revenues, specifically after adopting automation, modern methods, and information technology in estimation, estimation, and collection.
Earlier, Chancellor Saleh played down the risks of an increase in the budget deficit, stressing that the increase in oil prices above the number specified in the “tripartite” budget means that “automatic financing of the deficit has become a reality.” Last month, the Ministry of Oil announced that the Basra Gas Company had exported its first A shipment of “semi-refrigerated” propane gas, amounting to more than 10,700 tons, indicating that it is “one of the large shipments that are marketed and loaded on the back of specialized tankers.”
While specialists believe that this step is very important and would maximize the country’s financial revenues, in addition to its necessity in meeting internal needs. Saleh confirmed during his speech to “Al-Sabah” that the budget enjoys high discipline in maximizing non-oil revenues, especially tax and customs revenues, specifically after adopting automation, modern methods and information technology in estimation, estimation and collection, in addition to its orientation towards imposing discipline on operational expenditures and keeping spending on them at minimum levels. Accepted.
Saleh also explained that “the tripartite budget was truly keen to raise the efficiency of investment spending and the operation of all approved projects, in order to ensure a high growth rate in the domestic product at a rate exceeding twice the population growth rate through the movement of new projects without delay or stop,” noting that “according to Given these data, we notice that the pattern of public spending, according to the schedules announced, is characterized by accuracy, objectivity, and self-savings, which contributes to reducing the resort to financing the actual deficit, even when there is a need for internal borrowing, and within limits that ultimately do not exceed the accepted international standard percentage for financing the deficit, which amounts to 3 percent of the total. The country's gross domestic product or slightly exceed it.
The financial advisor also explained that “the efficiency of annual spending in the operational and investment aspects is an important issue in determining the total annual public spending according to what is planned,” pointing out that the operating budget constitutes the greatest challenge in the financial policy lifestyle because it constitutes more than 70 percent of the total spending and is spent 75 percent of it is for salaries, wages, pensions, and social care.
Therefore, the transfer space in it is very limited, in our belief, or remains in a very narrow range. Developments in this aspect require that they be matched by high growth in non-oil revenues to confront the constraint on operating spending, and this is what it seeks.
The federal general budget is one of the measures to introduce digital technology and electronic collection within the governance principles stated in the government program, explaining at the same time that the distribution of investment allocations in the tripartite general budget is undoubtedly subject to the standards and indicators of national economic development plans and in accordance with a harmonious vision of investment spending priorities in the country.
Determining governorate projects, which are precise allocations that have the approval of both the Council of Ministers and the legislative authority, as the financial schedules for the year 2024 were recently approved, especially on the side of public expenditures and their operational and investment parts, whose development impacts have expanded in a homogeneous manner throughout the political geography of Iraq.
Saleh believes that if the annual investment allocations for the year 2024 are proportional to the extent of the ability to implement, in light of the indicator of the disruption of the percentage of financial resources previously allocated to projects that were not implemented according to the time course specified for them, then financing governorate projects has become a matter that is consistent with the ability to implement, which is represented in... Time itself is an indicator of investment in the time dimension, which means that financing development projects must, in all circumstances, be proportional to the ability to implement on the ground and in practice.
Here lies the spirit of competition in the priority of one governorate in optimal investment and on time without delay, that is, proceeding with the completed work in an optimal manner. It is necessary to complete the allocations and provide them according to the real investment rule within the specified time. https://alsabaah.iq/98384-.html
Provoking Thoughts and Points To Ponder On Adversity:
[A difficult childhood gave me] a kind of cocky confidence. ... I could never have so little that I hadn't had less. It took away my fear. - Jacqueline Cochran
If you have been sunned through and through like an apricot on a wall from your earliest days, you are oversensitive to any withdrawal of heat. - Margot Asquith
I was lucky I wasn't a better boxer, or that's what I'd be now - a punchy ex-pug. - Bob Hope
At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses. - Ellen Key
Hot water is my native element. I was in it as a baby, and I have never seemed to get out of it ever since. - Edith Sitwell
http://famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/adversity_quotes.html