8/24/15
Tomorrow Press / Baghdad: recently addressed the annual report of the International Monetary Fund, the economic situation in Iraq. Indicating the Executive Committee of his reach information contained after consultation with the owners working in the country.
The report pointed out, that Iraq is facing economic problems because of Daash gangs and terrorist decline in global oil prices as the overall domestic public output actual decline in 2014 by up to 2.1 percent as a result of armed conflict, which the government waged against terrorism, while the production and export of oil has risen compared to its production and export in the year 2013.
He expected to see the overall economic recovery movement, indicating that this recovery will be increased by 0.5 percent thanks to the expansion of the oil sector.
He noted that oil prices caused the decline in Iraqi cash reserves globally, including those that reside in the Development Fund for Iraq, as it fell from $ 84 billion at the end of 2013 to $ 67 billion at the end of 2014, confirming the escalation of the financial pressures on the country expected to rise deficit it with from 5.3 percent last year to 18.4 percent of domestic output in the year 2015 as a result of weakness in the oil and higher expenses related aspect of the humanitarian and security prices.
He praised the report to maintain its exchange rate policy, saying it is well maintained its stability, praising the exchange rate liberalization steps taken by the central bank, which led to a decline in the expansion of the parallel market down to only 2 percent by the end of 2014. Impose new restrictions on discharges into an important concern in the market has led leading to the parallel market are the biggest expansion in the first months of this year, but the removal of these restrictions recently have helped in slowing down expansion to up to 4 percent in the month of July.
The report concluded, that the prospects for growth in the medium level in Iraq remain positive, although it will not be the level of growth before the current crisis. This growth will be driven by the planned increase in oil production and growth in the field of non-oil-backed improvement expected the security situation and the application of structural reforms.
The Fund currently supports Iraq through rapid funding mechanism the amount reached 1.242 billion dollars.
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