2009 budget doesn’t mirror approach to ease crunch – expert

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s 2009 budget does not reflect a serious approach on the part of the government to cushion the effects of the global financial turmoil on Iraq, a financial expert said on Friday. “The government’s insisting preference of operational expenditure to investment would constitute a burden on the budget and obligations that would be hard to change in the future,” Majid al-Souri told IraqiNews.com. “The current financial crisis has caused several negative changes in economic indices in the countries concerned, including oil exporters, brining Brent oil prices to 52 per barrel, with the possibility of further decreases still ringing,” said Souri. Ali al-Dabbagh, the official spokesman for the Iraqi government, had announced in mid-November that Iraq’s federal state budget for the year 2009 will be 79 trillion Iraqi dinars – 62 trillion for operational expenditure and 17 trillion for investments. AmR (P) 1