{"id":12946,"date":"2026-08-01T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/?p=12946"},"modified":"2026-08-01T11:00:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:00:41","slug":"urgent-monetary-and-financial-reforms-in-light-of-the-oil-export-crisis-and-bloated-operating-expenditures-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/2026\/08\/12946\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent Monetary and Financial Reforms in Light of the Oil Export Crisis and Bloated Operating Expenditures in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Ali Al-Rawi \/ PhD in Monetary Economics<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Iraq is currently navigating an economic phase that is considered one of its most sensitive in many years. This is due not only to traditional financial challenges but also to the simultaneous convergence of several complex crises. Some of these are internal, stemming from years of accumulated economic and administrative mismanagement, while others are external, linked to escalating geopolitical tensions in the region that now directly impact energy market stability and global trade.<\/p>\n

Over the past decades, the Iraqi economy has been built on a single resource that serves as the primary lifeblood of the state’s finances: oil. Although this resource provided Iraq with massive financial inflows during periods of high prices and political stability, excessive reliance on it has left the economy highly vulnerable to any political, security, or economic disruptions in global energy markets. Countries that rely on a single resource often appear formidable in times of abundance, but they become exceedingly fragile at the first real test.<\/p>\n

Today, amid escalating regional tensions and the potential disruption or restriction of oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, Iraq faces an exceptional challenge: the looming threat of a decline in the financial inflows upon which it almost entirely relies to fund salaries, operating expenditures, development projects, and public services. This vulnerability is compounded by bloated government spending, a growing public workforce, the accumulation of deferred financial obligations, and the pressures resulting from delayed government formation, which subsequently slowed economic and reform decision-making.<\/p>\n

The greatest danger facing rentier economies is not merely a decline in revenues, but the loss of maneuverability when crises strike. When the state assumes responsibility for funding the vast majority of economic activity and directly or indirectly supporting millions of citizens, any disruption in revenue quickly devolves into monetary, social, and psychological pressure that simultaneously impacts the market, the citizen, and the investor.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the current phase does not merely require temporary solutions or immediate remedies; rather, it demands a balanced, reformative vision that simultaneously protects monetary stability and initiates concrete economic steps to reduce the Iraqi economy’s medium- and long-term fragility. Major crises, despite their severity, can sometimes serve as moments of historical reckoning that rearrange priorities and spur the creation of a more stable, sustainable economic model.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, this paper seeks to provide a realistic assessment of current monetary and financial challenges while proposing a set of urgent, actionable reform measures. The aim is to help the new government navigate the current phase with minimal losses and maintain economic and social stability within a highly volatile regional and international environment.<\/p>\n

Download PDF<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Ali Al-Rawi \/ PhD in Monetary Economics Iraq is currently navigating an economic phase that is considered one of its most sensitive in many years. This is due not only to traditional financial challenges but also to the simultaneous convergence of several complex crises. Some of these are internal, stemming from years of accumulated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1733,6,1739,1731],"tags":[609,1094,1920,1921,45,549],"class_list":["post-12946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economic-studies","category-economics","category-policy-papers","category-research-department","tag-economic-reform","tag-financial-reform","tag-financial-reforms","tag-financial-situation","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi-economy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Urgent-monetary-and-fiscal-reforms.webp","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Y2nv-3mO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12949,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12946\/revisions\/12949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bayancenter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}