Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi denied, on Sunday, news that he had requested to borrow about $ 3 billion from Saudi Arabia.
Allawi called at the same time employees with high salaries to accept what he called “sacrifices”, referring to the “very worrying” equation in the budget.
Allawi told the Saudi newspaper, Asharq Al Awsat, that “the electricity sector was taken into consideration during his meetings with Saudi officials in Riyadh,” adding that “it is necessary to connect the electrical network to Iraq with the Saudi and Kuwait networks, and this diversity is important for the economic balance in Iraq.”
Allawi pointed out, “his agreement during his meetings with the Saudi side to provide a detailed note during the next week on how to develop the relationship, and what are the obstacles and projects that can be implemented in the immediate and medium term, which may be a model for economic relations, to be based on numbers, goals and structure.”
In a separate context, Allawi denied the reports that talked about Iraq asking Saudi Arabia to borrow approximately three billion dollars, noting that “these words are not true, but if we talk about the size of the support that we will get from Saudi projects that can be implemented in Iraq, and in If the capital is raised for these projects, we may reach this number and more, we want to move the investment inside Iraq.
He continued, “We have immediate financial problems in Iraq related to deficits and loss of flexibility, and the Iraqi budget is based on two assumptions: one is volatile, which is oil prices and the amount of production, and the second is fixed, which is salaries and pensions and workers, and this equation is very worried.”
Allawi called on Iraqis, “especially from the category of employees who have a rise in their returns, to accept sacrifices for the sake of rebalancing and rebuilding Iraq, but the poor of them are able to guarantee them.”
