Iraqi officials are still nowhere close to reaching an agreement with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region regarding oil payments owed to the central government, reported Reuters on Wednesday, with the impasse causing a delay in the approval for the national budget that was first drafted last October.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Northern Iraq has accused the nation’s central government for creating “division and strife”, reported Bloomberg on Friday, after Baghdad announced plans this week to develop the Kirkuk oil fields alongside BP plc, despite an ongoing dispute over the area’s sovereignty.
The semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in Northern Iraq has begun exporting crude oil directly to world markets without central government approval, reported Reuters on Monday, posing questions about Iraq’s ambitious production growth targets and reinforcing Kurdistan’s desire for greater economic independence.
The Iraqi government is set to purchase more than $4.2 billion in weapons from Russia in what would be the first major arms deal between the two countries since the fall of Saddam Hussein, reported Reuters and Bloomberg News on Tuesday.
Iraq plans to spend close to $500 billion over the next eighteen years on energy-related projects and industries, said Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani on Sunday, in the hopes of generating around 250,000 jobs for its citizens and around $6 trillion in revenues by 2030.
Speaking during an investment conference for British businessmen in Baghdad, al-Shahristani said that around $80 billion of the sum would be provided by the private sector, while the rest of the cash would be generated through government borrowing and oil revenues.
Iraqi government offices may effectively be closed for much of the upcoming summer period, reported the Associated Press on Monday, after a parliamentary committee proposed a new law that would significantly reduce working hours due to the searing summer heat.
In part two of our feature on the Iraqi economy, we look at how the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and the subsequent introduction of the US, managed to shape Iraq’s oil industry and political scenario. Finally, we ask what the Iraqi government needs to do to ensure the nation’s future, particularly with the fate of its citizens at hand.
The Iraqi economy has gone through a roller coaster of changes for the last sixty years. In the first part of our analysis, we explore how Iraq fundamentally changed from an agricultural-based economy to one that relied solely on oil. We also question how this reliance on oil shaped the aftermath of Iraq’s economy and society after the Iran-Iraq war as well as the first Gulf war.
Is the United States leaving Iraq for good, or are they leaving them in the lurch? As Iraqis celebrate the departure of the last American convoy, Iraq’s security and economy remains extremely vulnerable. President Obama has said that Iraq will grow faster than India and China, but can, and will Iraq warm up to economic cooperation with the United States?
Though more than 20 years have passed since Saddam Hussein led Iraq in invading Kuwait, eventually sparking the First Gulf War, conflicts over the two countries over the 10 oil fields that spread across the Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier still remain. Once again, both countries are throwing accusations at each other, with Iraqis complaining that Kuwaitis have been “stealing” their oil, while Kuwait alleges that Iraqi companies are extracting oil from Kuwaiti oil reserves. Will there be a third Gulf War?
