What's the status of IMF loan as Iraq dismisses finance minister?
The International Monetary Fund has granted a $3 billion loan to Iraq; however, parliament and the government have not yet reached an agreement over the loan conditions.
BAGHDAD — Prior to his dismissal Sept. 21, Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari ran successful negotiations with international banks to obtain financial support for Iraq. His last achievement was a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was secured during negotiations on Sept. 9.
These second round of negotiations between the Iraqi government and the IMF took place in the Jordanian capital Amman. The loan addresses the huge deficit in the 2016-17 fiscal budget due to lower oil prices; however, mystery still surrounds the amount of money that Iraq will have to pay in interest and the conditions imposed by the IMF on the Iraqi government.
Iraq originally began negotiations with the IMF during a first round of negotiations on May 14. With the objective of receiving $16 billion in installments over a three-year period, Iraq secured $5.4 billion.
The World Bank delegation participating in the meetings provided an economic development funding vision for Iraq that consisted of a soft loan of about $3 billion to be paid in installments and settled over a long period of time at a very low interest rate.
