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| - Iraq's parliament unveiled a 2021 budget on Thursday that foresees a deficit of around $20 billion, as it struggles with a financial and economic crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The government forecasts revenues of $69.9 billion based on oil exports of 3.25 million barrels per day. The budget set a barrel of oil at $45, well below the market price of $60. Iraq last approved a budget in 2019, but the following year it failed to adopt a budget as it faced nationwide protests and a change of government. War-scarred Iraq is the second biggest crude producer in the OPEC oil cartel, but it has been wrestling with mounting financial and economic woes. The Iraqi dinar has lost around 25 percent of its value within weeks, in a country where job losses and poverty are on the rise. According to the World Bank, the level of poverty doubled in 2020 and 40 percent of the country's 40 million people are now considered "poor". The Iraqi economy, one of the world's most oil-dependent, according to the World Bank, saw its gross domestic product contract by about 10 percent this year. The 2021 budget forecast that 80 percent of state revenues will rely on oil sales, including 250,000 bpd produced in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The budget also estimated investments at $19.6 billion compared to $27.8 billion in 2019, when the deficit stood at $23.1 billion. lk-sbh/hkb/sw
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