Iraqi Parliament approves $160 billion budget for 2024

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Parliament passed the country’s 2024 budget on Monday, totaling 211 trillion dinars (approximately $160 billion). The budget includes 156 trillion dinars (roughly $118 billion) for current expenditures and 55 trillion dinars (approximately $41 billion) for investment.

Chairman of the Parliament’s Finance Committee, Atwan al-Atwani, said the investment budget will be distributed among ministries and provincial administrations, prioritizing infrastructure projects from 2023 and previous years. He also noted an increase of 4 trillion dinars (approximately $3 billion) to secure salaries for employees and new appointees, as well as an expansion in social welfare allocations to include over 650,000 new families.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani also expressed gratitude to the Parliament for approving the budget, urging provincial councils to support anti-corruption efforts and stating, “There will be no compromise on people’s interests.”

For his part, Acting Speaker Mohsen Al-Mandalawi pledged that Parliament will monitor the disbursement of funds to prevent misuse or waste of public resources.

The budget allocated 20.9 trillion dinars (around $15.8 billion) to the Kurdistan Region, with 12 trillion dinars (approximately $9 billion) designated for salaries, pensions, and welfare benefits, and the remainder for investment and other expenditures. This marks the highest budget allocation to Kurdistan in the country’s history. Iraqi Parliament’s Kurdish Deputy Speaker, Shakhawan Abdullah, said the budget guarantees regular payments to Kurdistan’s civil servants.