ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi parliament is scheduled to convene on Sunday for a second reading of the federal budget bill, its speaker announced, after the cabinet submitted the draft to the legislature a month ago.
The session is expected to begin at 8:30 pm and "will be devoted to the second reading of the draft federal budget law," said Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi.
Iraq's Council of Ministers in early March approved the federal budget bill for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025. The government operated without a budget law in 2022 because lawmakers were unable to prepare one due to political instability.
The lack of a budget jeopardized the country's economy with Baghdad unable to take advantage of soaring oil prices to invest record revenues generated from oil sales.
Shakhawan Abdullah, second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, on Sunday called for its passage to be prioritized. "We should not further delay the approval of the federal budget," he told Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman.
The 2023 new budget includes a record $152 billion in spending and has sparked concerns of instability should oil prices drop below the $70 per barrel threshold set in the budget.
In oil-reliant Iraq, global prices of the natural resource hold significant sway over the economy.
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