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2025/02/27 13:36:24

Economy of Iraq

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Content

The main articles are:

GDP

2022: GDP size forecast - $0.29 trillion

Countries by GDP size in 2022, according to the IMF midyear forecast

Reserves of the country under the management of the United States

The country's own foreign exchange reserves after the US army invaded Iraq in 2003 are controlled by the US Federal Reserve.

Gold reserve

2023:132 tons of gold

The Iraqi Central Bank in May 2023 increased its gold reserves by about 2% in one day as part of a gradual stockpiling plan. Iraq bought 2.5 tons of bullion to bring its reserves to 132.73 tons.

Banks

2023

No cash withdrawals and dollar transactions

In October 2023, it was announced that Iraq it would ban cash withdrawals and transactions dollars USA from January 1, 2024, in the latest move to combat the misuse of the country's foreign exchange reserves for financial crimes and circumvent US sanctions against Iran, a senior Iraqi central bank official said.

According to the representative of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), this step is aimed at stopping the illegal use of about 50% of the $10 billion in cash imported annually by Iraq from the New York Fed.

It's also part of a broader program to de-dollarize the economy, with the dollar favored over local banknotes by residents weary of constant wars and crises since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

US sanctions on 14 Iraqi banks over leaks of dollars to Iran and other countries

In July 2023, Iraqi banks received fines from the US Federal Reserve and received restrictions on transactions in dollars.

The Fed's action on 14 Iraqi lenders sent the dinar rate in the unofficial market down to 1,570 to the dollar, 17% weaker than the official rate of roughly 1,300.

According to the data, the Fed Wall Street Journal acted as part of the fight dollar Iran against leakage to other Middle Eastern countries under American sanctions.

2022: Theft of $2.5 billion from the account of the tax service in the state bank "Rafidain"

Iraq's finance ministry found that five companies stole 2.5 billion from the dollars state tax commission's account. They were stolen from a government account at Baghdad's Rafidain Bank - a state-owned bank and Iraq's largest - between September 2021 and August 2022.

During that time, 247 checks were cashed out by five companies, three of which were created just over a month before the scheme began.

Oil Production and Processing

2025: 5th in the world in terms of oil reserves

Oil reserves in countries of the world (billion barrels), according to Bloomberg as of February 2025:

Venezuela: 303.8

Saudi Arabia: 258.6

Iran: 208.6

Canada: 170.3

Iraq: 145

Kuwait: 101.5

UAE: 97.8

Russia: 80

Libya: 48.3

UNITED STATES: 47.1

Nigeria: 36.8

Kazakhstan: 30

China: 26

Qatar: 25.2

Brazil: 12.7

2024: Reopening of Northern Refinery in Baiji after 10 years of downtime

In February 2024, Iraq resumes the operation of the Northern Oil Refinery in Baiji.

The plant was closed for a decade during the violence and chaos that followed the 2003 U.S. invasion, making it nearly impossible to manage one of the country's most important energy complexes.

2023: Iraqi authorities take back control of oil export revenue

After the invasion of US troops in Iraq and the hanging of President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Kurdistan for many years gained wide autonomy from the central government in Baghdad and the ability to independently export oil, receiving all the proceeds from it.

Iraq's biggest victory in March 2023 was the decision of the International Arbitration Court for the Export of Oil through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline. The Iraqi authorities have long sued Turkey because the latter imported energy directly from Kurdistan, and the autonomy authorities in Erbil received all the proceeds. Now only Iraq's state oil company SOMO will manage export operations, and all revenues will go to the federal budget.

After the court's decision, export through the oil pipeline temporarily stopped, presumably to resolve organizational issues.

The route of oil pipelines from Azerbaijan and Iraq and the epicenter of the earthquake in Turkey in 2023

In addition, the court awarded 1.4 billion dollars compensation to Iraq, which, according to the data MEDIA, , suited Turkey, since initially the Iraqi authorities demanded 33 billion.

In addition, the central government of Iraq, led by Muhammad al-Sudani, was able to reach an agreement on control over export revenues oil- now the funds will go to an account controlled by the authorities in Baghdad, which has not happened for about 20 years.

In addition, Iraq plans to auction a number of large oil and gas fields in eastern Baghdad within a month.

2021

Oil production in thousands of barrels per day by country in 2021

Gas production

2025: 12th in the world for proven gas reserves

Proved natural gas reserves (km3), according to Bloomberg data for February 2025:

Russia: 47,798

Iran: 33 980

Qatar: 23,871

Saudi Arabia: 15,910

UNITED STATES: 13,167

Turkmenistan: 11,326

China: 6,654

UAE: 6,088

Nigeria: 5,748

Venezuela: 5,663

Algeria: 4,502

Iraq: 3,738

Australia: 3,228

Power

2020: Low per capita energy consumption

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Energy consumption per capita, including electricity, transport heating in 2019-2020

Transport infrastructure

2024: Road and rail plan from Persian Gulf to Turkey

April 22, 2024 Iraq,, and Turkey Qatar UAE signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the framework of the Development Road project.

The project, which will connect the Persian Gulf with Europe through Turkey, is due to be completed in 2028. It is expected to cost $17 billion.

One of the main problems for the project is the presence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party formations in northern Iraq. Turkey and Iraq intend to remove this barrier using force.

Foreign trade

2022: China is the biggest export destination

According to data available for August 2023.

2019: Iraq is a major energy supplier to the EU

EU gas, oil and coal suppliers in 2019

R&D

2020: R&D costs - $206 million

R&D expenses, as of 2020

Agriculture

2019: Low use of pesticides in agriculture

As of 2019

2001: Main farming model - mixed

The main model of agriculture is mixed: irrigation and rain irrigation.

2001 data

Consumption

2023: Poultry meat is the most consumed type of meat

The most consumed type of meat (including fish and seafood) according to data available for June 2023.

2019: Poultry meat is the most consumed type of meat

Data for 2019

See also