Kurdistan gets 11% of the federal budget – minister

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The budget allocated to the Iraqi Kurdistan is not 17 percent of the country’s federal budget, said the region’s minister of finance and economy, explaining that it may reach less than 11 percent due to the increase in presidential and sovereignty funding, in addition to Iraq’s external debts. “The delay that occurred in approving the federal budget negatively affects projects in the Kurdistan region,” Baiz Talabani was quoted on the official Web site of Kurdistan’s regional cabinet. The total budget of Iraq in 2009 that was passed by the Parliament on March 5, 2009, totals $58.5 billion. MH (P)/SR 1