Iraq's president ratifies three-year budget law

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rasheed approved the country's 2023-2025 budget law on Wednesday, according to a presidential decree.

The Iraqi lawmakers approved the country's biggest budget on June 11. 

President Rasheed described the signing as a "turning point," as the $152 billion budget will allow the government to implement its programs across every sector, the president told Iraqi state media.

Hailed as one of the country’s biggest budgets, the state expenditures were set at 198.91 trillion Iraqi dinars ($152 billion) with a deficit of more than 64 trillion dinars (over $48 billion).

A barrel of oil is set at an assumed price of $70, with an average daily production of 3.5 million barrels of oil, including the Kurdistan Region’s 400,000 barrels.

Despite Kurdish dismay at certain provisions of the budget, the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani has welcomed the bill, hoping it would be implemented in a "fair manner". 

As a petrostate, Iraq’s main source of revenue, accounting for 95 percent, comes from oil sales. According to the latest figures from the Central Bank of Iraq, the country’s foreign reserves last month were set at $111 billion while its gold reserves increased to 132.74 tons, ranking 30 among those nations that hold gold reserves.