Iraq budget set at USD 41 bn budget, USD 1.5 mn for compensating Kuwait
Kuna - [10/02/2007]
The Iraqi parliament endorsed on Friday the country's largest budget ever of USD 41 billion, including USD 1.551 million for compensating Kuwait for the 1990 invasion, and incorporating a deficit of USD 7.14 billion.
The budget was endorsed with the majority vote of 157 MPs, thus paving the way for reconstruction and development projects that had been on hold for over a month while law makers resolved their disputes over the issue.
It allocated USD 1.551 million for compensating Kuwait for damages inflicted during the invasion of the country by the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein in 1990.
Iraqi Finance Minister Baqer Al-Zubaidi told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), "I was optimistic the parliament would make its decision and allow the government to allocate budgets for its ministries and executive councils." He said one mega-project was the construction of a large oil refinery, alongside electricity projects and building ten hospitals around the country. Schools and factories would also be set up, as well as infrastructure work.
On deficit, the minister explained it was a "projected and not realistic, and we hope to cover it with finances returned to the treasury from previous budgets." Projected revenues stood at USD 33.3 billion, mostly from oil.
The budget, he said, was calculated on the basis of USD 50 per oil barrel and an average export of 1.7 million barrels per day from Iraq's southern port.
AI
