Baghdad – INA
Advisor to the Prime Minister for Financial Affairs, Mudhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed that the fiscal deficit will be addressed in many paragraphs in the budget next year, expecting an increase in oil prices during the coming summer.
Salih told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), today, Sunday that "the deficit can be addressed by many paragraphs of the current year budget, including the increase in oil prices and the pressure of expenditures, and thus will compensate for the borrowing."
The financial advisor expected that "oil prices will continue to rise to higher levels, reaching $ 65 per barrel, by next summer, and lifting restrictions on transportation after the improvement of global conditions, due to the Corona virus."
He added, "The increase recently approved by OPEC in oil production, which amounts to 500 thousand barrels per day, indicates an increase in global demand for oil and a decrease in oil saturation rates."
He pointed out that "the poverty rate in the country has reached 30% of the total population, including the old displaced and unemployed, in addition to that there are more than two million families, added as a result of the Corona pandemic that swept the world."