Quick comment/correction

Reader comment on: The Global Economic Crisis & Iraq's Future

Submitted by JW (United States), Jun 1, 2009 18:40

The authors wrote: "Accordingly, Iraq's government slashed its 2009 budget by about 25 percent, from $80 billion to nearly $60 billion. Yet, despite this reduction in expenditures, around $20 billion of that figure will be deficit spending. This is made possible in part by the fact that a budgetary surplus of around $35 billion remains from the 2008 oil boom."

The Iraqi parliament and all the press reports initially said that they expected the budget surpluses from the past to cover the current deficit. Since the budget has been passed the Central Bank of Iraq, which holds the surplus money has told the parliament that they will not cover the deficit. The Finance Minister just got a $2 bil loan from the IMF, and they're hoping for some revenue from the cell phone companies to cover the budget now. See: http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2009/05/going-into-debt-to-cover-budget-deficit.html

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