Economist: Setting An Unconsidered Price For Oil In The Budget Reflects Negatively On The Implementation Of The Plans Drawn

The expert in economic affairs, Malath Al-Amin, warned against total dependence on oil in building the economy, stressing that setting a price for a barrel of oil that is not economically studied in the budget will negatively affect the implementation of the plans drawn in it.

Al-Amin said in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA): “Oil is the cornerstone of Iraq’s financial budget, but the fluctuations of the global market and the instability of its price negatively affect the implementation of the plans drawn up in the budget, especially when its price drops.”

He pointed out that “Iraq has achieved 115 billion dollars in oil revenues in 2022, which is the highest in years, but this figure is considered a useless number if it does not contribute to developing the country’s economy, fighting corruption and initiating the implementation of real plans to reduce dependence on oil as a major source of financing budget.

He stressed that “controlling the region’s revenues and including them within the central financial accounts of Iraq is a recognized matter, as is the case in the revenues achieved by the province of Basra or Anbar and others, to give the government room to draw the future of these provinces by adding new revenues and directing to establish new economic projects and move a specific sector in that paves the way for diversifying the sources of income of the local economy and achieving tangible development that provides new job opportunities and attracts capital towards large economic projects.

He continued, “The budget law is a time-related plan to recycle the money collected to achieve new financial savings while providing important services to citizens that make them feel belonging to the homeland through the state’s concern through free education and support for the productive sector, especially agriculture and industry, controlling prices and bringing the corrupt to justice.”

Source: National Iraqi News Agency