KTFA Members "News and Views" Friday 2-5-2021
KTFA:
Samson: Deputy: He went to reduce this year's budget to 100 trillion
4th February, 2021
Bader Al-Ziyadi, the deputy of the Saeron Alliance, revealed on Thursday that there is a tendency to reduce the 2021 budget to 100 trillion.
According to the official agency, Ziyadi said, "There is a tendency to reduce the general budget for 2021 to 100 trillion, after it was reduced to 127 trillion by the Finance Committee after it was sent by the government to the size of 164 trillion."
He added, "Reducing the total amount to 100 trillion will avoid Iraq from borrowing and debts," stressing the need to draw a fiscal policy that avoids the people's debt risks.
He explained that "the continuous rise in oil prices, reaching the $ 58 barrier, contributes to addressing the deficit." Making a "change in the budget items within the House of Representatives." LINK
OlLar: IMO i am getting the idea there is major chess playing going on. It seems as though the CBI is NOT about to divulge what rate they will use, and we know they have calculated and recalculated the rate, IMO based on what oil price is relied on and factors such as budget expenses and debt. They are forcing the Parliament to come up with a budget not based on any rate but on the other factors i.e. oil price, debt and so on, once they do so, and it is in stone, then the CBI will announce the rate based on the calculations. Does this seem plausible?
YoungSC: Frank had already stated numerous times that the budget is done imo and we keep our eyes on the CBI imo. 99% of the chit chat has come from parliament while CBI, Allawi and Keczemi remain silent. Parliament is corrupt and they prefer to cause confusion. Last week articles stated talks were positive, kurds are happy and agreements were met with the budget. Now all of a sudden this week articles brought to you by parliament have been stating kurds are not happy, disagreements and budget is still in negotiations, kurds questioning 2 paragraphs yesterday and now today Friday article states ohh its 13 questions they have. Or it states budget is 96% completed and yesterday they voted on 13 paragraphs in the budget but yet Halabousi said they are still working on the budget and it is not ready for approval yet LOL you get the drift?? This confusion alone should tell all KTFA students that parliament is full of nonsense and should not doubt Frank or WS teachings imo. ONLY pay attention to the CBI, KECZEMI and ALLAWI imo.
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Samson: Oil is jumping to its highest level in a year
5th February, 2021
On Friday, oil prices jumped to their highest levels in a year, continuing a series of strong gains due to indications of economic growth in the United States and the continued commitment of producers to curb the supply of crude
Brent crude futures rose 40 cents, or 0.7 percent, to 59.24 dollars a barrel, after recording 59.41 dollars a barrel, the highest level since February 20 last year. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures jumped 42 cents, or 0.8%, to $ 56.65 a barrel, after touching the highest level at $ 56.84, the highest level since January 22 of last year
The benchmark contract is on track to achieve weekly gains of 9%, which will be the biggest weekly gain since October
In a sign of shrinking crude oil supplies, the six-month delay in Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures - when the spot price is higher than the future delivery price - jumped to 13-month highs for both decades at $ 2.41 and $ 2.30 a barrel. Straight LINK
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Samson: Deputy: the budget is 96% ready
5th February, 2021
MP for the Alliance of Saeroun, Riyadh Al-Masoudi, confirmed, on Friday, that the budget is ready for printing and sending by 96%, while indicating that the political solution is no longer useful regarding the share of Kurdistan.
Riyadh Al-Masoudi said in a television interview, "The budget is 96 percent complete and is in the process of closing and printing to be sent to members of Parliament for the purpose of review."
He added that "the ongoing discussions focus on the issue of the proportion of the Kurdistan region, and consultations to add job grades for employees of contracts and education."
Al-Masoudi explained that "there are no conditions against the Kurdistan region, and the political solution is no longer effective," calling on the Kurdistan region to demand the application of the law and the constitution in order to work to restore the rights of Kurdistan employees." LINK
Samson: Baghdad is waiting for the Kurdistan Region to answer 13 questions to resolve the budget dispute
5th February, 2021
Kurdistan Parliament member, from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc, Hifidar Ahmed, announced on Friday that the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament had delivered the regional government delegation 13 questions, most notably the sale of crude oil, and the financial revenues generated from it with the aim of stabilizing Kurdistan’s share in the budget for the year 2021.
Ahmed said in a post today, that the Kurdistan Regional Government delegation ended its third visit to Baghdad with the aim of stabilizing the region’s share in the general budget, although he did not meet with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, explaining that the first visit reached an agreement with the federal government to hand over 250 A thousand barrels of crude oil per day in exchange for Baghdad granting 12.67% of the budget to Kurdistan after deducting the sovereign and governance expenditures, and this is what has been confirmed in the draft general budget law.
He noted that Baghdad recently informed the Kurdistan Region publicly that the issue of delivering (250 thousand barrels of crude oil per day to SOMO) has ended, and that the region has two options, the first of which is to deliver all of Kurdistan’s oil to Baghdad, and the second is to hand over all the financial revenues generated from selling oil.
Ahmed continued by saying that on the second visit of the provincial government delegation to Baghdad, and when it met with the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament, the latter posed 13 questions to the delegation and asked it to answer them, revealing 9 questions that are the most prominent, namely:
1- Does the Kurdistan Regional Government delegation have the authority to make decisions?
2-How much is the internal revenue of the Kurdistan Region?
3- What is the price that the region adopts for selling its oil?
4- The mechanism followed by the Kurdistan Region in concluding oil contracts?
5- What are the loan amounts owed by the region? Who are the bodies that granted these loans?
6- Does the Financial Supervision Bureau have a role in supervising and following up oil contracts?
7- Does Kurdistan Region have its own budget?
8- If the Kurdistan Region does not have a budget, what is the tired mechanism in spending its revenues?
9-How many employees, retirees, and those who receive salaries in general in the Kurdistan Region?
The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Hoshyar Zebari, confirmed on Thursday that the constitution does not allow the Iraqi parliament to manipulate the federal financial budget or make a change to its formulation.
Zebari said, "There must be an end to parliament, because our system is a single, independent and fully sovereign federal state. The system of government is republican, representative (parliamentary), and democratic, and this constitution is a guarantor of the unity of Iraq." He continued by saying, "The representatives cannot manipulate the budget on their own whims through their political and sectarian affiliations, and justice and the rights of all components must be fulfilled without exclusionary and racist policies if we want to build a civil and just state based on citizenship and participation and stop you playing on the strings of sectarianism and racism." Hate and exclusion."
The governments of Baghdad and Erbil reached an agreement to hand over the region's revenues of 250 thousand barrels per day and half of the other revenues from the border crossings and others, in exchange for a share estimated at 12.6 percent of the budget in addition to the payment of the salaries of the Peshmerga forces. The agreement was included in the draft budget approved by the Iraqi government and sent to Parliament for approval, but the KRG delegation returned to Baghdad again to persuade the political blocs in Parliament to pass the region’s share.
The regional government says it exports 250 thousand barrels per day of oil produced from its fields, and the remainder goes to domestic consumption, which makes it unable to meet the new demands of the Shiite blocs, which could lead to the collapse of the talks. The management of oil wealth and the distribution of its revenues are among the most prominent controversial issues that have been pending between Baghdad and Erbil for many years. Each party accuses the other of violating the constitution.
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Samson: Legal expert explains how to recover smuggled money from Iraq
10:40 - 05/02/2021
The legal expert, Ali Al-Tamimi, explained the mechanism for Iraq to recover its smuggled money abroad.
Al-Tamimi told "the information", "The best international move to retrieve the money smuggled abroad, which is estimated at 500 billion US dollars, can be recovered through the money laundering agreement for the year 2005 and signed by Iraq in 2007 with the help of these countries."
He added, “Iraq can recover its money as well according to Article 28 of the Iraqi-American Agreement of 2008, and also according to Article 50 of the United Nations Charter, which affirms the right of countries fighting organizations placed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter to request the assistance of the United Nations organization and Iraq was fighting ISIS terrorist subject. Under Chapter Seven under Resolution 2170 of 2014”.
And that “Iraq has an amount of 65 billion dollars in the US Federal Reserve frozen by the previous regime, and Iraq can claim it according to the above agreement for the year 2008.” LINK
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Samson: After a 10-year hiatus, the railways are transporting oil derivatives again from Baiji
4th February, 2021
Minister of Transport, Nasser Hussain Bandar Al-Shibli, announced, on Thursday, the conclusion of a contract with the Oil Products Distribution Company stipulating the transportation of petroleum products through the new specialized railway basins at a rate of 1000 cubic meters per day that can be increased according to the production capacity of the refinery from the loading baskets at the Al-Samoud station in Baiji And at a new tariff cost, not seen before by rail transport.
Al-Shibli said in a statement that Mawazine News received a copy of, that "this new contract will increase the volume of transport capacity and make the railways ranks among the winning companies," stressing "doubling efforts at all joints and taking appropriate measures to facilitate the smooth flow of the transportation of petroleum products by specialized docks." From loading sites to unloading platforms, serving the public good."
It should be noted that this new contract was signed by the Director General of Railways, Talib Jawad Kazem Al-Husseini, who had an effective role in concluding it thanks to the relentless follow-up and the earnest pursuit of making the railways among the profitable companies through the diversity of marketing outlets in agreement with government institutions as the railways are an ideal national carrier.
It is worth noting that the engineering and technical cadres in the company were able to maintain and rehabilitate 100 basins by self-efforts, in addition to importing 250 new ponds, of which 39 have reached so far. LINK
Samson: Life may get more difficult .. The economic situation is foretelling disaster in Iraq
4th February, 2021
Experts warned of the danger of the outbreak of unrest and popular protests in Iraq with the increasing rates of poverty, unemployment, the huge rise in prices and the government's inability to pay the salaries of public sector employees.
According to the site "NPR", the popular protests have rocked Iraq during the past year and a half. The largest of them was in Baghdad, but the southern city of Nasiriyah also witnessed large demonstrations and a sit-in that lasted for months, and while the strong crackdowns quelled the demonstrations, the anger was still simmering in the hearts of the people. Activists say that the increasing poverty is one of the factors that keep the protests going, including Ziad Al-Asaad, who participated in many anti-government demonstrations, stressing: "The economic situation of all people in Nasiriyah and Iraq is getting worse day by day. We will witness more demonstrations .. more. Protests in the streets, squares and squares."
For his part, political analyst Sajjad Jiyad said that "if the current situation continues, and oil prices remain low, there is a real possibility that more people will strike or protest, and things may become more difficult." Many shopkeepers in Baghdad complained about the poor conditions and the lack of buying and selling, since the value of the Iraqi dinar fell by twenty percent against the US dollar in the past world. "The rise of the dollar has devastated people," said Saad Salman, an owner of a sweets shop.
According to experts, the Iraqi economy has been suffering for a long time, but the recent period has increased its pain after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the decline in oil exports, and the drop in oil prices, which has formed a crisis similar to a catastrophe for a country that depends mostly on its income on exporting "black gold." The Ministry of Finance estimates that 7 million Iraqis (out of about 40 million citizens) receive government salaries or pensions. However, World Bank reports say that the number of these people decreased by 47.5 percent in the first eight months of last year. With the decline in oil revenues significantly, as the government is paying its salaries and pensions intermittently or in some sectors, and sometimes it does not pay them at all.
Economists say that the poverty rate in Iraq may have jumped from 20 percent in 2018 to 30 percent or more last year, and although the government tried to encourage people to buy local goods to provide hard currency and thus increase money in the state's treasury, this matter did not bear fruit due to the lack of goods Local or its scarcity in many areas of life and living. The owner of the sweets shop, Saad Suleiman, explained that the price of a bag of sugar increased by a third, and the price of walnuts nearly doubled. "Now, due to the high dollar and the failure to grant pensions and salaries to employees, there are two groups of people, a very poor class and a very rich class." "The situation is very bad." As for the expert at the International Energy Agency, Ali Al-Saffar, he describes the country's economic situation as very bad, explaining that despite the impact of the Corona pandemic on many countries in the region, Iraq is the most suffering and its situation "the most dangerous and prone to unrest and instability." Things in it. "
Al-Saffar pointed out that the structure of the economy in his country has been shaky for decades, explaining that Iraq depends on oil for up to 98 percent of its revenues, and almost all of it goes to the state treasury, which made the public sector grow and penetrate at the expense of the private sector and become the main resource for securing jobs and employment opportunities. For years, if not decades, economists have insisted that it is essential for Iraq to have a more diversified economy and a larger private sector, so that the livelihoods of many people are not dependent on high oil prices, but despite international development initiatives large and small, the private sector is still shrinking. In front of the state economy.
Government reform plan
Finance Minister Ali Allawi has a plan. "There has to be really a completely different approach to the way in which government funds itself and the way in which resources are allocated between different sectors." His ministry unveiled a "white paper" last year to carry out radical economic reforms such as encouraging investment by improving Iraq's infrastructure, increasing tax revenues, stimulating agriculture and manufacturing and adapting education to suit the needs of the global labor market. Allawi acknowledged that many of these ideas are not new, adding: "Most of these plans faltered because there was no will to support them." Oil money was flowing, and the government "chose the line the easiest way to deal with crises." Currently, Allawi says, there is political and popular recognition that reform is necessary and will require hundreds of concrete steps that will be enacted over a period of 3 to 5 years, the first of which is the devaluation of the currency. As for whether he was afraid of disturbances due to those measures that would be harsh in the eyes of many people, he replied: "There will be a losing class, but the beneficiaries will be many." LINK
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Don961: Report .. Iraqis resort to buying real estate after reducing the exchange rate of the dinar
Posted 7 hours ago News source / Baghdad today Baghdad Today- Follow up
A press report revealed that a large number of Iraqis are moving towards buying real estate after the government's decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar, as a step to confront the economic deficit that the country suffers from
And it was stated in the report published by the Independent that the real estate market in Baghdad may be the only one that has not been affected by the economic crisis in the country since the beginning of 2020, as it witnesses movement and rise in prices, in a large number of areas of the capital, especially during the past weeks
And the indications since the lifting of Corona restrictions on Iraqi cities last (August) show a movement of demand for real estate buying and selling
The movement retreated after the decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar, at the end of last year
It seems that the reduction of the Iraqi dinar exchange rate, and the citizen’s lack of confidence in the calls of government and private banks to invest money by depositing it in it and the risks of investments in other sectors, are two things that encouraged the Iraqi citizen to invest in another field that he believes is guaranteed. This trend is fueled by the fact that there are no signs of improvement in the political and economic situation in the country
According to the report, the Economic Committee in the Iraqi Council of Representatives expects that the approval of the budget will restore the confidence of the Iraqi citizen in the economy and reduce the current wide movement in the real estate market, especially in the capital
A member of the Economic Committee, Salem Al-Tufayli, says that "the high exchange rate of the dollar in the local markets has pushed citizens to tend to buy real estate as a kind of guarantee," considering that approving the budget and a number of government measures will reduce the growing demand for real estate
Tufayli notes that "there is a lack of confidence in Iraqi banks, which made many citizens who have money tend to buy real estate as a form of investment
Tufayli points to "the existence of a number of paragraphs in the budget that will work to reduce the negative effects of the economic situation in which the citizen lives, which creates a kind of reassurance for the citizen
Overpopulation, immigration and investment guarantee
The report indicates that large groups of the new wealthy who are the product of dealings with the Iraqi state institutions in recent times have gone to buy real estate in large sums in high-end neighborhoods within the capital. What, according to experts, caused the price to rise
"The blurry economic situation in Iraq has made many Iraqis tend to transfer their money in the form of assets by purchasing real estate, because they fear the future," says economist Salam Sumaisem
"The middle classes have tended to buy real estate, which led to a rise in prices as a result of increased demand," says Sumaisem
The continuation of internal migration towards the capital is another factor in the rise in real estate prices, especially since the areas of the peripheries that citizens leave suffer from service problems, unemployment and the spread of armed groups that control the elements of life in them
Economic specialist Bassem Jamil identifies the reasons for the rise in real estate prices, which are: “the population increase witnessed in the capital, Baghdad, immigration from some provinces, and the guarantee of investment in real estate
Jamil expects that "the real estate market will witness continuous activity, especially in light of the lack of value of the national currency
Of the staff loans
Ahmed al-Shammari, owner of a real estate services office in Baghdad, said, according to the report, that “for months there has been an increasing demand for real estate in Baghdad, especially in Al-Karkh,” indicating that “customers from the southern governorates, and they went to the capital because of job opportunities
Al-Shammari added, "There are state officers and employees who buy real estate at huge prices in high-end areas of Baghdad, such as Yarmouk, Al-Mansour, and Al-Harithiya in Al-Karkh and Al-Jadriya in Al-Rusafa, which led to the rise in prices
Al-Shammari indicates that there are other reasons that raised prices, including those related to loans and advances provided by government and private banks to buy real estate or to build, which helped the middle classes and formed a demand in the market
Iraqi government banks, including the Rasheed and Rafidain Banks, as well as the Iraqi Housing Fund, have launched a series of loans to citizens for housing construction over the past few days, ranging between 30 and 75 million dinars (from 20 thousand to 51 thousand dollars) to build houses ranging in size between 50 and 100 meters Square
The Central Bank of Iraq has also launched loans to build homes and buy housing units in investment complexes that are being built in the capital, with amounts ranging from 50 million Iraqi dinars to 125 million (from 34 thousand dollars to 86 thousand)
Price variation
The report notes that since 2014, the capital, Baghdad, has witnessed the construction of housing complexes containing more than 60,000 housing units, a large part of which has not been sold due to the high prices. This prompted the government to instruct banks to provide loans to those wishing to buy
According to the real estate stock exchange in Baghdad, prices vary from one region to another, depending on the assessment of its services and its location. The price per square meter in the Jadriya area in Rusafa near the Green Zone is about five thousand dollars, while the price per square meter in the Qadisiyah area, which separates the Tigris River from the first, is about $ 2,500
The prices increase the closer it is to the Yarmouk, Harithiya and Mansour areas in Al-Karkh
The price per square meter ranges in the areas south of Baghdad and west of Karkh between 800 and 1800 dollars
With the exception of the areas of Zayouna, Karrada and Palestine, where the price per square meter reaches three thousand dollars, the price per square meter in Rusafa does not exceed $ 1,200 due to the service, social and security problems it suffers from