“Tidbits From TNT” Sunday Morning 3-23-2025

EconomicsNews

Mar 23

TNT:

Tishwash: Al-Sudani chairs a meeting to follow up on reform measures for the Rafidain and Rashid banks.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani chaired a meeting on Sunday to follow up on reform measures at the Rafidain and Rashid banks.

Al-Sudani's office stated in a brief statement received by the Mail that "Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani chaired a meeting to follow up on reform measures for the Rafidain and Rashid banks, in the presence of representatives from Ernst & Young link

Tishwash: Iraq contracts with China to build a medical city in Dhi Qar at a cost of 490 billion dinars.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani sponsored, today, Saturday, the signing ceremony of the contract to establish the medical city in Dhi Qar Governorate, with the Chinese company (CSCEC), which is considered one of the largest contracts in the medical and healthcare sector.

Al-Sudani commended all the efforts made by the Dhi Qar Reconstruction Fund, the Ministry of Health, and other supporting agencies, which resulted in the signing of this 490 billion dinar contract, which will begin implementation soon.

He emphasized that Dhi Qar Governorate and its sacrificial people deserve the implementation of such a vital project, which will generate economic returns and prevent citizens from having to travel for medical treatment.

His Excellency affirmed that the Medical City project and the medical sector in general are at the top of the government's priorities, stressing the importance of continuing to implement projects in this sector, in order to proceed with the remaining structural reforms, especially the implementation of the health insurance law, and the projects to localize the pharmaceutical industry, which have achieved a qualitative leap.

He pointed to the government's efforts to implement seven hospitals in all governorates, complete the projects of lagging hospitals, and adopt a method of joint management and operation with international health institutions.

The Dhi Qar Medical City Project includes (13) independent medical facilities, including 7 hospitals with a total capacity of (700) beds, namely the main hospital with 200 beds, a specialized children's hospital with 100 beds, a specialized women's hospital with 100 beds, a blood diseases and oncology center with 100 beds, a specialized internal medicine and digestive system hospital with 100 beds, an emergency hospital with 50 beds, a consulting clinics complex, specialized centers, buildings for forensic medicine, research and studies, a blood bank, and a doctors' house.

The first phase of the project will be built on an area of 93 dunums, while the second phase will be built on an area of 39 dunums. link

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Tishwash: Forecasts of global economic variables and their impact on the Iraqi economy (2025-2030)

Samir Al-Nusairi

In light of analyzing the current situation of international economic, political and security variables and the extent of their expected impact on the Iraqi economy.

And with a close eye to the challenges and crises that the national economy has gone through, influenced by the economic crises that the major economic countries have suffered from, and the strategic conflicts between America and China, and the bias of some countries towards the American strategy to lead the world economically, and other countries moving towards the strategy of China and some emerging countries to establish a new international economic pole to confront American hegemony.

One of the most prominent consequences of this conflict is the global energy and food crisis, which has lasted for more than a decade and continues to plague countries with weak, poor, and rentier economies, preventing them from making a structural and comprehensive transition to emerging economies capable of withstanding the impacts of global economic conflicts.

Since mid-June 2014 and until the first quarter of 2020, the Iraqi economy has faced complex and cumulative challenges due to shifts in the global economy, the slowdown in global economic growth due to the US-China conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against terrorism, the decline in global oil prices, which reached rates exceeding 70%, and the economic recession. Most countries around the world have been affected by these repercussions, which have had a profound impact on the Iraqi economy. What concerns us is the outcome of these repercussions and the expectations, impacts, and implications for the current economic reality in Iraq in the coming years and until 2030.

In light of the study and analysis, the following can be expected at the level of the global economic system and its repercussions on Iraq:

Firstly, it is expected that the growth rates of the global economy will decline significantly in the American economy and the economies of the European Union countries, China and Russia, but at varying rates. The economic recession will prevail in most countries of the world and this will be reflected in a slowdown in the growth of the gross domestic product by rates ranging between (4-10%) in the Arab oil-producing and non-oil-producing countries, especially after the countries of the geographical region entered new challenges due to the Zionist aggression on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

This has created a new complex situation that will have negative effects on the national economy.

Secondly, the new global economic order that we expect to emerge in the coming years will inevitably take shape and will be under the clear economic and financial leadership of America and China. The Silk Road will be activated to include the countries through which it was planned to pass to revive their economies and will actually be completed. It is also expected that the development path will be completed and that there will be an important role for Iraq and the countries participating in the project and that this will have positive repercussions on the economy.

Thirdly, the philosophy of economic management will most likely shift from the capitalist market economy to the social market economy currently adopted as a disciplinary ideology, as in China and some other countries around the world. These are just early predictions, and the Arab economy will most likely be subservient to the new, larger and more economically powerful pole.

So what is required of economic decision-makers in Iraq in the face of these developments and changes expected to sweep the world? I see, with a penetrating analytical eye to the current economic reality, that we urgently need radical and comprehensive economic change and reform based on the following key axes:

First: Re-changing the map of national income resources by reducing dependence on oil as the main resource and activating other resources in the coming years to bring them to 30% of the total resources of the general budget.

Second: Radically and comprehensively changing agricultural, industrial, commercial, oil, energy and water policies by relying on local resources to ensure food and water security, encouraging, protecting and supporting local production, and developing programmes and strategies to protect consumers.

Third: Supporting, developing and stimulating the private sector and utilizing its capabilities, potential, capital and investments in building the national economy and involving it in economic decision-making and economic management.

Fourth: Developing clear strategies for coordination between monetary and fiscal policies, formulating clear financial policies, and restoring the foundations for preparing and presenting annual general budgets based on programs rather than items. Reducing the budget deficit to the legally specified percentage of the gross domestic product, as well as reducing domestic borrowing to the lowest possible level and avoiding borrowing from abroad at all.

Fifth: Completing the new methodology adopted by the Central Bank for banking reform and development and digital transformation in all digital fields, with a focus on implementing the Central Bank’s strategy, establishing the financial center, and using artificial intelligence in analyzing, ensuring transparency and accuracy of data for sound economic planning purposes and overcoming the challenges of instability in the financial and monetary systems.

This means developing coordinated and balanced plans to overcome the challenges of monetary policy, the challenges of the deficit in non-oil revenue, the deficit in the balance of payments and the trade balance, and the percentage of contribution of the productive sectors (the real economy) to the gross domestic product link

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