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FRANK26: "DO YOU RECALL... WE SAID THESE SAME WORDS LAST NIGHT ON OUR UB2B?"

Up to 25%... Continued delays and a growing deficit in the 2025 budget

3/15/2025

Baghdad

Financial and economic expert Haider Al-Sheikh revealed, on Saturday (March 15, 2025), the latest developments in the 2025 budget schedules, noting that the Ministry of Finance is still delaying its preparation so far.

The sheikh explained to Baghdad Today that “the ministry has not yet completed preparing the schedules, which postpones sending them to the Council of Ministers and then to the House of Representatives for a vote.”

While the sheikh denied reports circulating about the bill being referred to the government, he suggested it would likely be sent before the end of Ramadan, with the bill arriving in Parliament after Eid al-Fitr.

He pointed out that "the total budget for 2025 exceeds 200 trillion dinars, while actual expenditures amount to 150 trillion dinars, with a financial deficit amounting to 25% of the total budget."

The Prime Minister's financial advisor, Mazhar Mohammed Saleh, announced in a statement to the Official Gazette last Thursday that "the 2025 budget tables will be sent to the House of Representatives in the coming days," indicating that "the total budget amounts to 200 trillion dinars," noting that "two-thirds of the budget is for employees and retiree salaries, social welfare, and operating wages."

He revealed that "the hypothetical budget deficit amounts to 64 trillion dinars, and that it will be financed from domestic sources if oil prices fall below $70 or exports fall below 3.4 million barrels per day."

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