Iraq’s foreign reserves exceed 85 billion USD
The headquarters of the Central Bank of Iraq. Photo: Central Bank of Iraq
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) revealed on Sunday that its foreign reserves exceeded 85 billion USD which is the highest level since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Gold reserves of the Central Bank also exceeded 130.4 tons worth seven billion USD, according to the CBI statement published on its official website.
The statement also explained that Iraq reached the thirtieth position globally and fourth in the Arab world in terms of gold reserves.
However, the oil-rich country is witnessing difficult economic conditions as the unemployment rate in Iraq reached 27 percent and the poverty rate reached 31.7 percent, according to statistics issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning.
Iraq is also suffering from a political crisis affecting its economic reality amid failure to form a new government since the parliamentary elections took place in October 2021, and consequently, failure to adopt a new budget for the country.
Last August, the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Mohammed al-Halbousi, said that there is a financial surplus of 80 trillion Iraqi dinars (50 billion USD) from oil export revenues for the current year, but these amounts are frozen and cannot be spent as the 2022 budget has not been approved.
94 percent of Iraq’s budget come from revenues of crude oil exports.