The government of Iraq's Kurdistan region has unveiled spending cuts in a tentative step toward tackling an economic crisis that officials say poses a greater threat than Islamic State. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is three months in arrears and deeply in debt, has been struggling since early 2014 when the Baghdad government slashed its funding, halting a boom
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A coalition of prominent Iraqi exiles who say Sunnis are being persecuted by Iraq’s government is setting up a lobbying office in Washington, D.C., next month. The office, due to open Jan. 16, is intended to give Iraqi Sunnis a direct channel to lobby Congress on receiving U.S. military assistance and other issues. Iraqi Sunnis are particularly worried about ensuring they have
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Baghdad (AFP) - Iraq's parliament adopted Wednesday a 2016 budget of $88.2 billion, based on projected oil prices of $45 per barrel, according to a copy received by AFP. The budget includes oil production the federal government does not now control and envisions a rise in oil prices, meaning revenue may fall short of projections. Parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi announced t
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Sellers of a new grade of Iraqi oil are competing fiercely to win market share on the U.S. Gulf Coast, though high sulfur content has limited appeal for refiners of the crude, known as Basra Heavy. Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) began selling the crude with an API gravity of about 23 degrees in May after separating it from the Basra Light stream to resolve quali
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The International Monetary Fund will finalize an agreement with Iraq in the coming days for a program to monitor its economy, the fund's Middle East director said on Tuesday. The monitoring program would establish a track record of effective performance on the part of the Iraqi authorities which could lead to a finance program being agreed next year, Masood Ahmed told Reuters
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