Kurdistan Region Received Just 4.2% of Iraq’s Budget over 12 Years, Ministry Says
KRG Finance Ministry says Baghdad transferred enough funding to cover only 46 of 144 monthly salary payments between 2014 and 2025
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Finance and Economy said on Saturday that the federal government transferred an average of just 4.2 percent of Iraq’s total public budget to the Region between 2014 and 2025, leaving a substantial gap between its actual funding and its stated financial entitlement.
In a statement released on Oct. 17, 2026, the ministry published financial data covering the 12-year period, saying the transfers made by Baghdad after sovereign deductions, debt repayments, and other financial obligations amounted to 41 trillion and 42 billion Iraqi dinars. (approximately $27.04 billion at the exchange rate on the day of publication)
According to the ministry, the Kurdistan Region’s actual financial entitlement during the same period amounted to 212 trillion and 761 billion dinars (approximately $140.14 billion at the exchange rate on the day of publication).
The funds transferred covered only 46 monthly salary payments for public employees and other beneficiaries out of a total of 144 payments over the 12 years.
The ministry said the federal government’s transfers fell significantly short of the Region’s expected share, which it put at either 17 percent or 12.67 percent, depending on the applicable allocation basis and financial calculations.
The statement also highlighted disputes over federal transfers in 2014, 2020, and 2022. In those years, Baghdad classified the funds sent to the Kurdistan Region as loans, citing the absence of an approved federal budget law, the ministry said.
The amounts were subsequently subject to deductions from the Region’s financial entitlements when the federal budgets were approved.
The ministry further referred to population data published by Iraq’s Ministry of Planning in 2024 following the national population census, arguing that the Kurdistan Region’s fair and legal share of Iraq’s overall public budget should amount to 14.14 percent based on its share of the country’s population.
The figures underscore the longstanding financial dispute between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government in Baghdad over budget allocations, public-sector salaries, and the distribution of national revenues.
The dispute has repeatedly affected the regular payment of salaries to public employees in the Kurdistan Region and remains a central issue in relations between the two governments.
Disagreements over the implementation of budget laws and the transfer of non-oil revenues have repeatedly disrupted federal funding to the Kurdistan Region, contributing to delays in salary payments for hundreds of thousands of public employees.
The KRG has consistently called on the federal government to respect the Region’s constitutional and legal financial entitlements, while Baghdad has linked budget transfers to fiscal obligations and the implementation of federal financial requirements.