KRG receives May salary funds from Baghdad following new financial agreement

ERBIL — The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Finance announced Thursday it has received 974.8 billion Iraqi dinars from Baghdad to cover May salaries for public employees and retirees. The funds were deposited into the ministry’s account at the Central Bank of Iraq’s Erbil branch.

Salary distribution is set to begin Friday and continue through Sunday, July 27, with all employees expected to receive payments within that three-day window.

The transfer comes 85 days after the last public sector salary payments in the Kurdistan Region and follows a renewed financial arrangement between Erbil and Baghdad after weeks of negotiations.

The KRG said the payment was made under a new “joint understanding” reached in recent high-level meetings between Kurdish and federal officials. As part of the deal, the KRG agreed to deliver oil produced in the Kurdistan Region to Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil, and to remit 120 billion dinars in non-oil revenue.

Tensions between the two governments escalated in May after the federal Finance Ministry suspended monthly transfers to the KRG, accusing it of exceeding its 2025 budget allocation by more than 19 trillion dinars and failing to provide transparent revenue data. The KRG has denied the accusations, insisting it has complied with its constitutional obligations.