IMF: Growth rate in Iraq is slowing down
The International Monetary Fund logo inside its headquarters in Washington, U.S. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a statement about the prospects of the Iraqi economy in terms of the suspension of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, in addition to the decline in oil production and fluctuations in the currency exchange rate.
The statement explained that a team from the IMF met recently with Iraqi officials in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to discuss recent economic developments and policy plans for the period ahead.
The Iraqi economy’s growth momentum has slowed in recent months. After returning to its pre-pandemic level last year, oil production is set to contract by five percent in 2023 owing to the OPEC+ production cut and the outage of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the statement clarified.
The foreign exchange market volatility in the wake of tighter anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism controls by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) on foreign exchange market sales has adversely affected import-dependent non-oil sectors, the statement elaborated.
The real non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have contracted by nine percent in the last quarter of 2022, negating its growth during the previous three quarters, the statement explained.
With the foreign exchange market appearing to be stabilizing, helped by CBI’s actions, the growth of real non-oil GDP is expected to resume and reach 3.7 percent in 2023, the statement illustrated.
After inflation spiked to seven percent in January, it began to moderate and is projected to average 5.6 percent in 2023, the statement added.