2018 Iraqi Budget Crisis

A budgetary crisis that gradually grew and deepened showed up in Iraq as of the starting of 2018. The new budget design was met with discomfort by all the elements that make up Iraq’s social and political structure. The emergence of a dispute in the country where there exists a structure since 2003 in which the Prime Minister is Shia, the President is Kurdish and the President of the Assembly is Sunni, the budgetary share the provinces and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have has caused the crisis. Reducing the budget of the KRG, which has been 17 percent since 2003, to 12.67 percent within the scope of the austerity measures due to the costs of the war against Daesh, led to a reaction by the KRG and brought about a budget crisis. Therefore, Kurdish parliamentarians, in particular, have vetoed the law draft on the budget by the parliament because of the reduction in the budgetary share of the KRG and made the draft be sent back for further discussion. The law draft also vetoed by President Masum on the grounds that it included constitutional violations was enacted without any change in line with the request of the Iraqi Central Government.