The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohammed Salih, revealed on Thursday that Iraq’s external debts due do not exceed ten billion dollars.
Saleh told Shafaq News Agency, “Iraq’s external debts due do not exceed ten billion dollars, and there are financial allocations in the federal general budget to pay them off.”
He explained that “the external debts are from the settlements of the Paris Club agreement debts and date back to before 1990, whether for the foreign private sector or sovereign debts, and they must be extinguished by the year 2028.”
Saleh stressed that “the small external debts of Iraq made it have a high financial creditworthiness, which is classified by companies such as the American SNB.”
In 2004, the Paris Club announced a comprehensive settlement to reduce Iraq’s $120 billion debt by 80% in three stages. These debts were incurred by the country as a result of the former regime resorting to borrowing money, weapons, and goods from Arab and European countries, America, and others during the 1980s to perpetuate the war with Iran.
shafaq.com
