Sunday Afternoon Iraq Economic News Highlights 8-14-22

Because Of The Invalidity Of The Exchange .. The Iraqi Government Warns Of A "Financial Blockade"

Economic  Last Update 08/14/2022 | 9:56 AM   The Information/Baghdad..Adviser to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, warned, on Sunday, of what he described as a “financial blockade” due to the public finance problem, while indicating that there are fears of entering 2023 without a budget.

Saleh said in a statement reported by the official "Al-Sabah" newspaper, which was seen by "The Information", that "one of the most serious concerns that is currently being raised is the problem of public finance, which may enter into a financial impasse or siege," noting that "there is no power to exchange at all, as the Financial Management Law Effective No. 6 of the amended 2019 allows it, in the absence of the budget law in the subsequent year, to spend at a rate of 1/12 of the actual expenditures made in the previous year’s budget.”

He added, "The fears are entering 2023 without a budget, so what is the exchange rule in this case with the absence of the 1/12 rule? .. The Emergency Food Security Law No. 2 of 2022 expires at the end of this year."

Saleh explained: “The public finances will fall into a dilemma, unless the prime ministers and the republic resort to the Federal Court to obtain a decision that allows them to continue spending according to 1/12 in 2023 until the legislative arrangements are completed to issue and accept the 2023 budget, even if it is a caretaker government.” finished/25    https://almaalomah.me/2022/08/14/613644/

Al-Kazemi’s Advisor: There Are Fears Of Entering 2023 Without A Budget

Economie   15:45 - 08-14 2022   Al-Kazemi’s advisor: There are fears of entering 2023 without a budget 121482022_13525

On Sunday, August 14, 2022, Adviser to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, warned of what he described as a “financial blockade,” while indicating that there are fears of entering 2023 without a budget.

Saleh said in a press statement, "One of the most serious concerns that is currently being raised is the public finance problem, which may enter into a financial impasse or blockade," noting that "there are no exchange powers at all. The absence of a budget law in the following year, spending at the rate of 1/12 of the actual expenditures made in the previous year’s budget.”

Saleh added, "The fears are entering 2023 without a budget, so what is the exchange rule in this case with the absence of the 1/12 rule? .. The Emergency Food Security Law No. 2 of 2022 expires at the end of this year."

Saleh explained: The public finances will be in trouble, unless the prime ministers and the republic resort to the Federal Court to obtain a decision that allows them to continue spending according to 12/1 in 2023 until the legislative arrangements are completed to issue and accept the 2023 budget, even if it is a caretaker government.

According to the chancellor, the federation can issue a decision that protects the interests of the people and the economy from stagnation by what is called force majeure.

https://kirkuktv.net/AR/Details/8178

The Iraqi Stock Exchange Records Trading Of More Than "Two Billion Dinars" In A Week

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Stock Exchange announced today, Sunday, the trading of shares with a financial value of more than two billion dinars during the past week.

The market said in a report seen by Shafaq News Agency, "The number of companies whose shares were traded during the past week amounted to 52 joint-stock companies, while the shares of 31 companies were not traded due to the lack of convergence of purchase orders prices with sales orders, while 20 companies continued to be suspended for not providing disclosure out of 103 companies." listed on the market.

He added that "the number of traded shares amounted to 1,64 million and 725 thousand shares, with a financial value of two billion and 20 million and 50 thousand dinars through the implementation of 1610 deals," noting that "the ISX60 traded price index closed at 566.47 points, recording a decrease of 0.37% from its closing in the previous session.

He pointed out that "the number of shares purchased from non-Iraqi investors for the past week amounted to 67 million shares, with a financial value of 97 million dinars, through the implementation of 56 deals, while the number of shares sold from non-Iraqi investors reached 206 million shares, with a financial value of one billion and 297 million dinars, through Execution of 167 transactions.

It is noteworthy that the Iraqi Stock Exchange organizes five trading sessions per week from Sunday to Thursday, except for the official holiday, and includes 103 Iraqi joint stock companies representing the sectors of banking, telecommunications, industry, agriculture, insurance, financial investment, services, tourism and hotels. LINK

From A Land Abundant With Water To A Barren Land...The Marshes Of Iraq Succumb To Drought

Reports   Economy News-Baghdad   Hashem was forced to travel ten kilometers across arid lands in southern Iraq, to ​​obtain water and fodder for his buffaloes and to protect them from destruction, due to a drought that hit the marshes, after they were for thousands of years, as plentiful as the abundance of water in them .

Today, very large areas of water have disappeared from the Hawizeh Marsh, which is located on the border with the eastern neighbor Iran, and the Jabayish Marsh, which is a tourist destination to the south, and these swamps have turned into dry cracked land, among which yellow bushes emerged .

The reason is the drought and the almost complete absence of rain during the last three years, but also the low level of water flowing from the rivers that originate in the neighboring countries of Iran and Turkey, forcing Baghdad to legalize the use of its reserves .

Hashem Kased (35 years old) lives in a poor village near the Hawizeh Marsh. "The drought has affected us very much, both humans and animals, " he says.

In this area, only muddy pools of water here and there, and dry lines of streams that descended through the swamps of the once fertile marshes, remain on the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2016. .

Like his father before, Hashem works as a buffalo breeder. He recounts, "We used to live in the marshes. We fished, and the animals drank the water and graze among the reeds ."

Today, the Hashem family has only five buffaloes out of more than thirty that it owned as a result of the death of some of them, and others were sold during the past few years to cover the family's expenses .

The family was forced to pay attention to the livestock they had left to protect them from perishing in the event that they fell in the mud. Animals that are exhausted and malnourished will not be able to extricate themselves .

Poverty and climate change

The marshes experienced previous years of severe drought before being irrigated by heavy rains .

Between 2020 and 2022, the water level and humidity decreased in 41% of the area of ​​the marshes in southern Iraq, including Al-Hawizeh and Al-Jabayish, while water bodies dried up in 46% of the area of​​the marshes, according to a survey conducted by the Dutch NGO “Pax” based on images from satellites .

In light of the sharp decline in the waters of the marshes, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sounded the alarm, warning in a report published in mid-July that the marshes are "one of the poorest areas in Iraq and one of the areas most affected by climate change and water shortages ."

She pointed to "disastrous effects on the livelihoods of more than six thousand rural families, as they lost their buffaloes, which are their only source of livelihood ."

Environmental activist Ahmed Saleh Nehme, 40, who lives in the neighboring city of Al-Amarah, said, "The drought has completely destroyed biodiversity. There are no fish or animals such as water dogs, wild pigs or birds ."

On its website, UNESCO recalls that the marshes are home to "multiple species of endangered animals" and are "one of the largest wintering sites" for ducks and a "key stopping site" for about two hundred species of migratory birds .

According to activist Ahmed Saleh, the Al-Hawizeh Marsh is mainly fed by two tributaries of the Tigris River, which originates in Turkey. However, the authorities legalized their flow as part of a government plan to rationalize the use of water to meet all the country's needs .

"The government wants to conserve as much water as possible to protect its strategic reserves," Saleh says. But at the same time he criticizes the "wrong management of the water file" and the "unfair division of water ".

Under the pressure of the demonstrations, the authorities partially opened the water flow before stopping it again, according to the activist .

- 'In search of water' -

From the Iranian side, these marshes, which are called "Hawr al-Azim", also suffer from receding water. Half of the Iranian part has dried up, as recently reported by the official Iranian news agency (IRNA) .

Hatem Hamid, the director general of the National Center for Water Resources Management, blames neighboring Iran for the crisis. He says that "the main feeding of the Al-Hawizeh Marsh is from the Iranian side, but the river has been completely cut off for more than a year ."

The official added that the water needs of agricultural activities and the marshes are only partially covered in light of water rationing from the Iraqi side as well, while among the priorities there is the need to secure drinking water .

The official explained that "the agricultural sector and the marshes are the most affected by the scarcity of water, because they are the two largest consumers of water ."

With temperatures exceeding 50°C, it also refers to "high evaporation that occurs in the marshes" and cannot be compensated for by available water .

He added, "We cannot secure 100% (water) for agriculture, or 100% for the marshes ."

For his part, the Director-General of the Marsh Recovery Center Hussein al-Kilani says that there is a program this year to expand, deepen and rehabilitate the waterways and rivers that irrigate the marshes, explaining that this helped reduce the migration of buffalo breeders and their concentration on the banks of rivers feeding the marshes .

The marshes extend between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Mesopotamia, described by some as "Gardens of Eden on Earth ".

But this land rich in life, was subjected to frequent droughts and suffering during the rule of the former regime. In order to suppress opponents who took them as refuge, Saddam Hussein drained the marshes in the 1990s. Since then, its wet areas have almost halved .

In the Chabayish marshes, Ali Jawad (20 years) sums up the current conditions by saying, "Before, when we entered the marshes, we saw green spaces, water and inner peace... now a desert ."

Dozens of families have left the place, he says, "in search of places with water."

Source:  AFP   Views 125 Added 08/14/2022 - 1:07 PM   Update 08/14/2022 - 4:45 PM

https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=29317

The Obelisk Publishes Financial Instructions Regarding The Powers Of Disbursing The Food Security Law

Baghdad / Obelisk: On Sunday, August 14, 2022, the Ministry of Finance issued instructions for the powers of disbursing the Food Security and Development Law No. 2 of 2022.

The Ministry of Finance called on "all ministries and agencies not associated with a ministry to review the budget department to receive instructions."

To view the financial instructions regarding exchange in law

click here   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RHNFiz2pqXQxWAwCo5Fe0Ijhy-w7OC6V/view

https://almasalah.com/archives/10821

To Ensure The Warmth Of The President's Chair.. Al-Halbousi Is Dying To Award Contracts To Turkey More Than One Billion Dollars

Politician   Last Update 08/14/2022 | 12:49 PM   The Information/Baghdad..A Sunni political source revealed, on Sunday, the issuance of a directive to a party headed by Muhammad al-Halbousi to support any Turkish project in the liberated areas and to grant Turkish companies new contracts as soon as possible within the food security law, indicating that these directives come to ensure that al-Halbousi remains in his position. .

The source said in a statement to "Al-Maalouma" that "about a trillion dinars of the financial share within the emergency support law approved by Parliament opened the appetites of Sunni parties, especially the Takadum party, which is headed by Muhammad al-Halbousi."

He added, "There are 500 billion dinars within the fund for the reconstruction of liberated areas, 300 billion within the compensation fund for those affected by the war operations, and about 250 billion allocations for the Sunni governorates to raise the level of poverty, in addition to the contracts of the Ministry of Trade with Turkish companies to import food items within the food basket."

He added, "These sums are earmarked for the reconstruction of airports, roads, hospitals, and the establishment of some projects. Most of them will go to Turkish companies, according to direct directions from the Progress Party to the heads of administrative departments such as the governors of Anbar and Nineveh, as well as projects in Diyala and Salah al-Din."

The source pointed out that "those suspicious deals increase the Turkish dominance on Iraqi lands, in conjunction with its conduct of military operations to control the entire provinces of the Kurdistan region, amid government silence." Ended / 25 D    https://almaalomah.me/2022/08/14/613690/

Economist: Salaries Continue For The Next Year, Bonuses And Appointments Depend On The Budget

Economic   Last Update 08/14/2022 | 8:53 AM  Information / Baghdad...The economist, Mustafa Hantoush, confirmed that the salaries will not stop and will continue to be on the 1 by 12 system next year, even with the absence of a budget for the previous year, pointing out that the bonuses and appointments will stop until a budget is approved.

Hantoush told Al-Maalouma, "The Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019, Article III / A, addressed the situation of the absence of the state's general budget in the event that a budget was not approved."

He added that "in the absence of a budget, work is carried out according to the last approved budget, and the actual final expenditure is taken into account, and the disbursement is made according to it in the other year in which a budget was not approved. A balance was approved in it with the increases that took place in the emergency food security system.”

And he indicated that "the process of stopping salaries does not exist at all, but the bonuses that are postponed until a budget is approved will be stopped, and new appointments also need a budget." finished 25 https://almaalomah.me/2022/08/14/613630/

"Shorja" Suffers Stagnation And Merchants Point To The Political Crisis

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi markets are witnessing an increase in supply offset by a lack of demand, due to the political crisis and the protests that cast a shadow over the Shorja market, Iraq's largest economic market.

Economic observers and traders believe that the "Shorja market" is going through a recession, the third of its kind.

Shafaq News Agency conducted a tour in Al-Shorja market in central Baghdad, and spoke to a number of its merchants.

One of the traders, who asked not to be named, explained that the first stagnation in the market was when the October protests broke out in 2019.

He added that the second period of recession that Al-Shorja traders faced was when Mustafa Al-Kazemi's government raised the dollar exchange rate.

He pointed out that the third state of recession that Iraq is going through at this time after the start of the Sadrist movement's protests.    LINK