The Iraqi Ministry of Finance revealed that total revenues in the federal budget from January through August 2025 exceeded 82 trillion dinars, noting that oil contributed 90% of the budget.
According to data and tables released by the Ministry of Finance in November for the fiscal accounts of the first eight months of the current year, the share of oil in the general budget increased compared to the previous month, reaching 90%. This indicates that the rentier economy remains the foundation of the country’s public budget.
The ministry’s tables showed that total revenues amounted to 82 trillion, 377 billion, 552 million, 620 thousand, and 313 dinars.
Oil revenues reached 73 trillion, 821 billion, 820 million, and 815 thousand dinars, representing 90% of the general budget, while non-oil revenues amounted to 8 trillion, 555 billion, 371 million, and 804 thousand dinars.
The ministry added that total current expenditures amounted to 73 trillion, 649 billion, 419 million, and 388 thousand dinars, including 44 trillion dinars in salaries for employees, 12 trillion and 558 billion dinars in pensions, and 3 trillion and 710 billion dinars in social welfare payments.
In March 2021, the prime minister’s financial advisor, Mudher Mohammed Saleh, stated in an interview with Shafaq News Agency that the persistence of Iraq’s rentier economy is due to wars, economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in past decades, and the ongoing political conflicts that have fragmented the country’s economic resources.
The continued dependence of the Iraqi state on oil as its sole source of public revenue places the country at risk from recurring global crises that affect the oil market. As a result, Iraq repeatedly turns to external or internal borrowing to cover budget deficits, reflecting an inability to manage state finances effectively and a failure to develop alternative financing solutions.