08-05-2025
PM's Advisor: 35% GDP Increase Following Rise in Investment Spending Index
Baghdad – INA
The Prime Minister's Financial Advisor, Mazhar Mohammed Salih, confirmed on Thursday that the current investment spending index, which amounts to 88 trillion dinars in projects across various sectors, is a positive indicator and a model of growing business activity in the economy and various infrastructure projects.
Salih told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "The current investment spending index on projects across various sectors reaching approximately 88 trillion dinars is a positive indicator that has contributed to achieving a 35% increase in the country's annual GDP."
He added that "40% of the total investment spending index was recorded for the private sector through independent projects or in partnership with the government sector."
He pointed out that "significant and tangible progress has accompanied the recent years of stability in the country in reactivating investment in the country's two largest raw material reserves globally, namely sulfur and phosphate. Investment in these two raw material reserves is being negotiated with major international companies specialized in exporting them at the highest value-added levels." He explained that "investing in sulfur and phosphate reserves aims to shift the economy away from oil asset cycles and a single source of rent. It also represents the beginning of a process of economic diversification, stabilizing state resources, and achieving diverse sources of income." He added that "government resources and expenditures are the primary and strategic driver of investment in economic and human development throughout the country, in parallel with oil resources."
Regarding the recovery of embezzled and smuggled funds, he stated that "the Iraqi Asset Recovery Fund Law No. (9) of 2012, with the first amendment issued pursuant to Law No. (7) of 2019, has provided an opportunity for the Iraqi government to negotiate when concluding economic cooperation agreements with other countries around the world, whether within the texts of the agreements themselves, in the memoranda of understanding concluded, or through friendly consultations."
He continued, "This law aims to recover all financial rights of the Republic of Iraq that others (Iraqis and foreigners) have obtained illegally and that have been leaked or smuggled out of the country at various times, and to link joint international cooperation to the recovery of these funds."
He explained that "economic agreements are an important tool in the matter of recovering smuggled funds, deposits, and investments in foreign jurisdictions, in order to withdraw them for the benefit of the public treasury and strengthen the country's financial resources."
In the same context, economic expert Akram Hantoush confirmed to the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "the volume of investments in Iraq before 2017 was approximately $45 billion, most of which were investments in the oil and banking sectors, and has increased today to approximately $88 to $90 billion."
He added that "the volume of these investments will increase if they include the industrial, agricultural, transportation, and tourism sectors," explaining that "investments in the private sector are expected to reach more than $500 billion if amendments are made to investment laws, monetary policy, and lending policies to create infrastructure for the private sector, such as the establishment of industrial cities, investment roads, investments in the electricity sector, and wholesale markets. The government is working to support their operation by having government institutions purchase the goods offered by these investments."
