Economic analysis: a chronic imbalance that was repeated in the 2021 budget and was subject to quotas

Time: 04/02/2021 10:50:08
 
{Economical: Al Furat News} The Iraqi Economists Network said that a chronic imbalance in the Iraqi financial budgets is repeated in this year's budget.

The network said in a statement that the Al Furat News Agency received a copy of it "on the first of April of this year, and after a delay of more than three months, the House of Representatives approved the draft budget for 2021, many amendments were made to the original copy submitted by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the Council of Ministers. ".

It indicated that "the volume of total spending was reduced from 164 trillion dinars to about 130 trillion dinars, and with it the planned deficit was reduced from 71 trillion to about 29 trillion dinars."

The statement added, "But on the other hand, the chronic structural defect in the financial policy, in the rentier approach and in the distribution of the quotas for wealth that has been used in designing budgets since 2007, as the decision-maker in the House of Representatives continued to prefer current spending over spending on development projects and for electoral reasons." ".

"As for the allocations for development projects that generate job opportunities for the armies of the unemployed, they did not receive the same importance as current spending, and only 30 trillion dinars were allocated to them, of which 5 trillion were foreign loans, which accounted for 23% of the total spending."

She indicated that "the current circumstances in which the Iraqi economy is going through recession and unemployment require giving a larger share of investment spending of not less than 40% of the total spending."

The network expressed its "regret that the tables of the budget law have not been published, which makes it difficult for the economic analyst to assess the structure of current spending allocations, especially the share of salaries for employees and retirees, as well as subsidies for the poor and under the poverty line, the unemployed in the private sector, the earners and daily wage workers whose work was disrupted by the Corona pandemic." ".

Ammar Al-Masoudi

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