Oil prices trouble budget of 2009 – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Member of the Iraqi parliament’s financial committee on Saturday said that reduction in oil prices will heavily affect the federal budget of Iraq in 2009, putting the government in the middle of a big crisis. “We, as a financial committee, have many notes about the budget, including the continuous reduction in oil prices,” Lawmaker Sami al-Atroshi told IraqiNews.com. “The committee will send a report to the Ministry of Finance, urging the Ministry to reconsider the budget in general,” he said. The Iraqi federal budget of 2009 considers oil prices as $62 per barrel, but nowadays the price of a barrel of oil is around $40. MH (P)/SR 1