A few days ago, the Central Bank announced that its reserves had reached the highest levels in the country’s history, estimated at more than $87 billion; As a result of high oil prices.
There is also between 15 to 20 billion dollars in excess of the spending schedule, due to the absence of the financial budget, which makes these funds a golden opportunity to achieve economic gains and move the investment wheel.
The new government and the fate of the money
With the start of consultations to form the new government headed by Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani, there was talk about how to benefit from these funds in order to achieve the greatest financial returns, and stimulate the economy that has been paralyzed in recent months as a result of the political crisis and the parties’ conflicts over the government.
Adviser to the Iraqi Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad, confirms to “Sky News Arabia”, that “Iraq’s foreign reserves may reach 90 billion dollars at the end of this year, and more than percent of those reserves are for the Central Bank, as a cash cover for the Iraqi dinar.”
He described the central bank’s foreign currency investment portfolio as a “sovereign fund or quasi-fund.”
He also called for the establishment of what he described as the “Generation Fund,” adding: The establishment is one of the savings made in the general budget, which may reach the end of this year 15 to 20 billion dollars, which must be invested after legally adapting the issue, through the Reconstruction Council, especially in infrastructure projects. and productive activities to bring about a renaissance in the Iraqi economy.
urgent projects
Iraqi economists prefer accelerating the benefit of the new abundance in treating the effects of the “Coronavirus” crisis, the depreciation of the dinar against the dollar, and the rise in prices, especially to alleviate the low-income people.
In this, a member of the Economy and Investment Committee in the former parliament, Nada Shaker, told “Sky News Arabia”, “The economic situation now needs treatments on the short and medium levels, such as reviving factories to employ the workforce, rehabilitating infrastructure and power stations, and developing agriculture. to raise the standard of living of the population.
As for the long-term level of establishing sovereign funds, “it can be done in advanced stages.”
The former parliamentarian attributed this to the fact that “the conditions are not favorable to go towards long-term investment now because of the urgent need to rescue groups afflicted by poverty, frustration and despair.”
She is optimistic that “the current government is determined to make progress in this area, through better investment of existing resources and diversification of the economy.”
And the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, when it was formed in 2020, had previously announced that it was heading to establish a sovereign fund for Iraq, similar to the well-known experiences in some countries of the world, but the project did not see the light due to the successive crises that struck the country.
The areas in which these funds invest are diverse, most notably real estate, hedge funds, investment funds in the financial markets, bonds, stocks, futures contracts and raw materials.
And two crises left Iraq last week with regard to the faltering formation of the government and the election of a president for the country months ago, after Parliament elected Abdul Latif Rashid as President of the Republic of Iraq, and in turn commissioned Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani to form the government; What gives full-time hopes to pay attention to the economy and development.
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