At a Glance

• Iraqi Parliamentary committee hosted CBI officials over the financial crisis.
• Discussions focused on optimizing deficit-financing strategies and engineering proactive economic crisis solutions.
• Agenda items included addressing public sector payroll delays, inflation metrics, and foreign exchange reserves.

The Iraqi Parliamentary Finance Committee hosted Central Bank officials on Sunday to discuss strengthening monetary policy, financing the budget deficit, and implementing reforms to resolve the financial crisis.

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Key Statement and Focus Area

• Lawmaker Uday Awad Kadhim stressed “the importance of establishing advanced mechanisms to strengthen monetary policy, support financial and monetary stability, and work on maximizing revenues to help boost the country's financial economy.”
• The CBI Governor provided a detailed explanation regarding the bank’s direction in monetary policy for the upcoming fiscal years.

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Uday Awad Kadhim chaired a meeting of the Finance Committee, during which the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Nizar Nasser Hussein, the Deputy Governor, Shaimaa Abbas, and the senior staff were in attendance.

The high-level session focused on evaluating monetary frameworks, optimizing deficit-financing strategies, and engineering proactive fiscal solutions to navigate the ongoing economic crisis.

The committee reviewed inflation metrics, foreign exchange reserves, and the underlying factors causing public sector payroll delays.

The lawmakers evaluated the Central Bank’s revenue-generation strategy, foreign currency auction data, local exchange rates, and subsidized dollar distribution channels for travelers.

Additionally, the committee examined mechanisms for financing the budget deficit, including the possibility of lending to the government or discounting treasury bills to finance the deficit, along with its impact on the monetary system and the national economy.

The committee also examined deficit-financing options like government lending and treasury bill discounting to assess their impact on the national economy.

During the meeting, the CBI Governor detailed the bank’s monetary policy direction for upcoming fiscal years, outlining “mechanisms to maintain monetary stability, manage liquidity, and enhance the role of the policy interest rate, explaining the impact of monetary policy on economic activity and the importance of a gradual transition to support the real economy.”

Discussions examined banking sector development and structural economic reforms to bolster financial stability.

The panel further analyzed the Central Bank’s 2025 fiscal records to verify reserve sustainability and strengthen economic resilience.

FYI

Iraq is experiencing a severe fiscal crisis, shifting from a budget surplus to a 21.24 trillion IQD deficit in the first half of 2026. 

This shortfall stems from regional disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, which have bottlenecked southern crude oil exports. Consequently, falling revenues have caused lengthy public sector salary delays and widespread market stagnation. 

While some officials are pushing for emergency measures like printing money, experts warn this could destabilize the country's current inflation rate. 

Earlier, Lawmaker Dilan Ghafoor told Channel8 that the Iraqi Council of Representatives will conduct the reading of the Borrowing and Grants Bill of 2026, which defines the borrowing authorities of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance.

The Iraqi government is also reportedly seeking to pass a bill to delete zeros from the currency, aiming to restore liquidity to banks and activate the electronic system for financial transactions in the country.

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