Budget cut lessens deficit to 27% – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The 2009 state budget cut by 5 trillion Iraqi dinars has helped lower the deficit from 32% to 27%, an Iraqi lawmaker said on Thursday. “The cut decreased the deficit to from 21 trillion Iraqi dinars to 15.8 trillion Iraqi dinars. The appropriations for the presidency, parliament, ministers and supreme judiciary were cut by 20% while those of the ministers, legislators and advisors were cut by 10%,” Sami al-Atroushi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s financial committee, told IraqiNews.com news agency. Atroushi noted that the parliament was keen not to touch the investment allocations, which were maintained at $12.7 billion. Meanwhile, Sabah al-Saadi, a member of the parliament’s anti-corruption committee, said this is “the first time the budget was debated in a proper accurate way in line with the global financial crisis”. AmR (P) 1