Baghdad transfers funds for Kurdistan Region public sector salaries to KRG accounts

ERBIL — Iraq’s federal government has transferred 945.87b IQD ($716.58m) to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Finance and Economy to cover Kurdistan Region public sector salaries for August 2025, the ministry announced Sunday.

According to the ministry’s statement, the amount was deposited into the ministry’s bank account at the Iraq’s central bank branch in Erbil.

The transfer comes as the region nears the end of October.

As is customary, the ministry will publish the payroll distribution chart following the transfer. Salary disbursement is expected to begin Monday and proceed over a three-day period.

Tensions between the regional and federal governments resurfaced earlier this year when Baghdad halted transfers to the Kurdistan Region in May, accusing Erbil of exceeding its budget allocation and withholding revenue data. Transfers resumed in July after the two sides struck a deal that required the KRG to deliver 230,000 barrels per day of crude oil and remit 120 billion dinars in non-oil revenues. Funds for May, June, July and now August were subsequently released.

Earlier this month, the KRG renewed its call for the federal government in Baghdad to release public sector salaries, citing full implementation of the trilateral oil export agreement and ongoing transfers of non-oil revenues.

The cabinet said the trilateral agreement, signed between Erbil, Baghdad, and international stakeholders, has been implemented “well and without shortfall”.

In late-September, oil exports from the Kurdistan Region restarted following a suspension of the Iraq–Turkey pipeline, halted in March 2023 due to an arbitration ruling in Paris. The restart came after what officials called a “historic agreement” on Sept. 25 between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, transferring export operations to Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO.