Iraqi News Tuesday AM 12-14-21
Iraqi News Tuesday AM 12-14-21
TLM724 Administrator BondLady’s Corner
Mazhar Saleh: Iraq Is On The Verge Of An Economic Recovery
Tuesday 14 December 2021 171 Baghdad: Haider Falih Al-Rubaie
The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr. Mazhar Muhammad Salih, expressed his optimism about the expected deficit levels in the next year’s budget 2022, stressing that the hypothetical deficit gap will “automatically cancel” as a result of the positive oil revenue differences, especially if the average price of a barrel of oil stabilizes at $70. At the same time, he revealed that the 2022 budget seeks to maximize the optimal spending on investment projects, with the aim of achieving a growth rate in the gross domestic product, which is no less than 5%.
Despite the level of optimism expressed by the government advisor, the economist, Manaf Al-Sayegh, believes that estimating the selling price of a barrel of oil in previous budgets is not subject to the standards of the global market, and this leads to the adoption of an inaccurate hypothetical price that pushes towards building spending with an unclear deficit, pointing out That Iraq's budgets are item budgets, and this pattern was abandoned by most countries of the world due to its inefficiency in achieving annual spending requirements, calling for work on balancing goal-oriented programs.
Prudential Deficit
Saleh said in a statement to {Al-Sabah} that {there are developments in the features of the expected general budget for 2022, which adopted an oil price of about $50 per barrel, for the purposes of calculating average oil revenues throughout the next year in light of a daily export capacity of more than three million barrels of oil}. Indicating that in the event that the spending ceiling increases by 10% over the current ceiling in the 2022 budget, this means that there is a precautionary deficit that the budget will adopt to avoid undesirable fluctuations in oil prices during the next fiscal year.
According to the foregoing, the financial advisor to the Prime Minister believes that the “hypothetical deficit will be 20% of the total spending ceiling, and about 8% of GDP, but the average price of a barrel of oil, if it continues to remain stable at $70, the budget will be in A situation of {mostly equilibrium}, and the hypothetical deficit gap will be automatically eliminated from the positive oil revenue differentials.
Investment Budget
Despite the “cautious” optimism shown by Saleh, which is closely related to fluctuating oil prices, with the aim of reaching a budget without a fiscal deficit, the next year’s 2022 budget in its other aspects, according to the government adviser, “will be distinguished by introducing a medium-term program for investment projects, with commitment to program costs for important and strategic projects, and according to their social priorities, especially those that affect the well-being of society and its economic priority, being income-generating and operating the business cycle in the economy.”
The next budget will also seek, according to Saleh, to {maximizing optimal spending on investment projects with the aim of achieving a growth rate in the gross domestic product that exceeds the population growth rate, and at least 5% or more, which will lead to an accelerated reduction in unemployment rates as well} Stressing that these steps will lead to an economic recovery in the country.
Items And Programs
In turn, the economist, Manaf Al-Sayegh, identified, during a statement to “Al-Sabah,” a set of imbalances, he said: The previous budgets suffered greatly, putting at the forefront of these imbalances the budget’s dependence on the principle of “items” that most countries of the year left, and now depend on the budget of goal-oriented programs In addition, the issue of estimating the selling price of a barrel of oil in the general budget is not subject to the standards of the global market, which pushes towards building spending with an unclear deficit.
His Level.
Al-Sayegh hinted, that {most budgets since 2014 witnessed the status of investment spending in them, equal in their expenditures to the value of the planned deficit in the budget, noting that any financial returns that come from selling oil in the event of an improvement in its prices through which investment expenditures are covered, This means that the government canceled investment spending and mortgaged it to the budget deficit.
Spending Levels
The economist believes, “The circumstance that Iraq is going through needs to change the way and pattern of thinking of those in charge of building public budgets in the classical way, which depends on guesswork in determining spending levels, and thus, in most cases, increases what public spending units need, and leads to higher levels of operational spending.”
At the expense of annual investment spending, with a decrease in the efficiency of spending, which leads to waste of public money and encourages corruption.
Proposing in this matter {transition to a pattern of prioritizing according to the available spending levels, without the need for spending that leads to a deficit, with an emphasis on building budgets on the basis of annual programs subject to measurement, follow-up and modification to turn at the end of the fiscal year into existing projects that serve the community and the state}. LINK
An International Agency: Iraq Is On The Verge Of The Largest Growth Rates In The Region
Posted On 2021-12-14 By Sotaliraq Translation/ Hamed Ahmed
A specialized agency expected that Iraq will witness the highest growth in the Gulf oil-exporting countries next year, pointing out that its rates may reach 8.1%.
A report by The National news website, translated by (Al-Mada), stated that "the international credit rating agency, Fitch, stated that the oil-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa are expected to witness stronger economic growth during the next year."
The report added, "This is driven by the acceleration of vaccination programs and the escalation of oil prices, as well as the OPEC Plus policy to gradually increase oil production in line with the improvement and increase in demand."
He pointed out, "The economy of Iraq, the second largest oil producer in OPEC, is expected to witness stronger growth during 2022, at a rate of more than 8.1%, which is the highest growth rate expected among the Gulf oil-exporting countries."
The report pointed out that "the expected growth rate in Kuwait is 7.9%, followed by Saudi Arabia, the largest producer of oil in OPEC, by 7.4%, and the UAE by 5.8%."
He stressed, "The outstanding financial budgets will more than improve the economic conditions of all the countries of the Cooperation Council and Iraq during the year, at a time when oil prices will remain strong."
And the report stated, "This comes with the price of Brent crude reaching $70 per barrel and the large-scale increases in oil production in line with the OPEC Plus agreement."
And he continues, that "the oil-producing member states of OPEC had begun to gradually increase their production of crude oil, since the beginning of August of this year, to meet the increasing demand for crude."
He warned, "The global economy continues to recover from the Corona virus pandemic and the consequences of the epidemic on the economy," and spoke about "the OPEC countries' agreement to start increasing their production by 400,000 barrels per day starting next month."
The report expected, “The cases of decreasing OPEC Plus production of crude will lead to an increase in production rates by rates ranging between 8 to 15%, which will lead to an increase in oil financial revenues at a time when the average oil price will remain similar to the rates of 2020.”
He stated, "Fitch's estimates were based on indicators of improvement in the financial returns of the budgets of oil-exporting countries in 2021."
The report indicated, "Brent crude returned to recover, reaching more than $70 per barrel, an increase of $30 per barrel over 2020 prices."
And Toby Ailes, director of Fitch Ratings for the Middle East, is quoted as saying that "the outlook for oil and for regional reforms and policies is, in general, more structural than it was a few years ago."
According to the report, Ailes added, "The region will continue to face structural risks that include an increase in youth unemployment rates, mismanagement with increased dependence on hydrocarbon fuels, as well as other financial challenges related to limited fiscal spending and external financial challenges for some countries."
And he noted, "Oil prices had risen Friday, showing the highest weekly gain since late August, while fears of the spread of the new mutated epidemic of the Corona virus, Omicron, affected the weak demand for oil."
The report added, "Both the Brent crude index and the US West Texas crude index gained 8% last week, amid expectations of an improvement in oil demand."
And he added, "Brent, the international benchmark for the price of oil, rose by 0.98 percent at the closing of the Friday Stock Exchange, recording a price of $75.15 a barrel, while West Texas crude, the benchmark for US crude prices, rose by 1.03%, recording a price of $71.67 a barrel."
The report also quotes an economic analyst, Louis Dixon, from Richard Energy, a Norwegian economic consultancy, as saying, “Most of the oil price losses brought on by the news of the spread of the Omicron mutant last week have receded, and now there is stability in oil prices, and most importantly is the need to maintain this Positive momentum.
Dixon continued, according to the report, that "the concern about Omicron has now subsided at a time when analyzes showed that his symptoms were described as moderate, and this thing is a kind of recovery for oil producers and sellers who initially expected the worst."
And the report went on, "The Iraqi Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar, expected yesterday, Sunday, that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, during its next meeting, will maintain its current policy of gradually increasing production at a rate of 400,000 barrels per day every month." LINK
Iraq And Pakistan Discuss Strengthening Economic Partnership And Activating The Private Sector
Minister of Commerce Alaa Ahmed Hassan
Money and business Economy News – Baghdad The Minister of Commerce, Alaa Al-Jubouri, discussed with the Pakistani Ambassador to Iraq Ahmed Amjad Ali, on Tuesday, strengthening the economic partnership and activating the private sector.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, Muhammad Hanoun, said that "the Minister of Commerce discussed with the Pakistani ambassador the strengthening of trade and economic relations between the two countries and the creation of new mechanisms to deal with the private sector and the establishment of real partnerships," according to "conscious."
He pointed out that "the Minister of Trade, Alaa al-Jubouri, stressed that Iraq seeks to activate economic relations with all countries of the world and benefit from economic expertise in this field and the importance of holding the Iraqi-Pakistani Joint Committee for its meetings and resolving all files related to the two countries," stressing "the importance of holding a specialized exhibition for Pakistani products." Which is scheduled to be held early next year, in which Pakistani industries will be displayed."
Al-Jubouri stressed "the importance of encouraging Pakistani companies to invest in the Iraqi provinces and participate in international exhibitions held by Iraq and the importance of supporting Iraq's position in negotiations with the World Trade Organization to obtain full membership in the organization."
For his part, the Pakistani ambassador affirmed his country's government's desire to develop economic relations with Iraq, noting that "Pakistan will hold an exhibition in Baghdad and Erbil early next year, which aims to activate the level of cooperation between the private sectors of both countries and to develop and activate economic relations with Iraq." Views 89 Date Added 12/14/2021
https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=26953
The Minister Of Planning Announces The Financing Of 1,000 Projects Across Iraq
Money and business Economy News _ Baghdad On Tuesday, Minister of Planning Khaled Battal announced the financing of 1,000 small and medium projects across Iraq.
Battal said in a press conference held in Baghdad on the occasion of the celebration of financing 1,000 small and medium projects with grants from the Enterprise Development Fund and followed by "Al-Iqtisad News", that "financial support was provided to implement 1,000 small and medium projects in all Iraqi governorates, and on this occasion and on behalf of the Republic of Iraq we value the initiative." That was proposed by the International Organization for Migration represented in the establishment of the Enterprise Development Fund.
He pointed out that "this fund will contribute to building the Iraqi economy as a means of economic recovery after Iraq has overcome difficult challenges it faced through terrorism and the Corona pandemic."
He added that "the projects have a major role in advancing the economic recovery in the basic and secondary sectors and supporting the young graduates category of various disciplines, stressing that" the Ministry of Planning is ready to work in its departments and formations to provide studies and available data and provide statistics for topics in the fund in coordination with the ministries, governorates and departments concerned."
Views 144 Date of addition 12/14/2021 https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=26952
A GOVERNMENT BANK DIRECTS ITS BRANCHES TO STOP ALL TYPES OF CREDIT
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 2:18 PM Baghdad/National News Center
Today, Tuesday, Al-Rasheed Bank directed to stop all types of credit for application purposes.
A statement by the bank, received by the “National News Center,” stated that it “directed its branches to stop all types of credit at the end of the official working hours for tomorrow, Wednesday.”
He added, "This directive came for the purposes of the annual application of the bank's accounts, which is applicable annually," noting that "work will be resumed in granting credit at the beginning of the new year." https://nnciraq.com/108923/
AMERICA: WE HAVE SUPPORTED IRAQ WITH MORE THAN THREE BILLION DOLLARS
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 2:16 PM Baghdad/National News Center
The United States Ambassador to Baghdad Matthew Tueller announced on Tuesday that his country has provided more than three billion dollars in humanitarian aid and support for infrastructure and economic projects to Iraq since 2014 until now.
In his speech on the sidelines of the Project Development Fund conference with the support of the United Nations Migration Agency, held in the capital, Baghdad, Tueller highlighted the "humanitarian aid provided by the United States of America to Iraq, whether in the field of health, education or construction, after the era of ISIS." He added, "Helping Iraqi entrepreneurs succeed in the economy and business was the cornerstone of our bilateral relationship with Iraq, and we are steadfast in this commitment."
And he added, "The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Iraq to ensure the safety and well-being of displaced Iraqis."
The ambassador also noted that "during the struggle against ISIS, since 2014, the United States has provided more than $3 billion in humanitarian aid to displaced Iraqis in Iraq."
According to the American diplomat, "Since 2015, the United States of America has implemented 850 infrastructure projects to restore basic services that were destroyed by ISIS," noting that "we have reconstructed more than 140 schools, 62 water treatment plants and 17 sub-electricity stations."
Tueller also added by saying: We have reconstructed clinics and hospitals, provided medicines, extended electricity transmission lines, repaired roads and bridges, and worked with homeowners to restore the water of more than a thousand homes.
He continued, "The United States has contributed to the recovery of the Iraqi economy from the destruction of ISIS, and the damages of the Corona pandemic, adding: We do this by investing the capabilities of the Iraqis through their entrepreneurial spirit, innovations and steadfastness so that they can build their future."
The ambassador disclosed that "the contribution of the United States to directly support the Project Development Fund in Iraq amounted to $6 million." https://nnciraq.com/108921/
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