Iraq has requested a lending program from the International Monetary Fund, and the fund intends to support Baghdad “very firmly,” Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Saturday, October 17.
“We will get to Iraq both money and policy support,” Georgieva told a closing news conference at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, Reuters reported.
Iraq faces one of its most serious economic and security situations since the Iran war began in February, The National reported.
Iraqi Finance Minister Falih Al-Sari met Jihad Azour, director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, in Bangkok on Wednesday, October 14, to review the financial pressures facing the country, according to a finance ministry statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency. Central Bank of Iraq Governor Nizar Nasser Hussein attended the meeting.
Azour said the fund was ready to support Iraq as it deals with a financial crisis caused by tensions in the region, the statement said.
Al-Sari also met Mohamed Maait, the IMF executive director who represents Iraq’s constituency, and Ali Alhosani, whose election as the first Emirati executive director at the fund was announced on Friday.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein put the country’s losses from the war between the United States and Iran at about $60 billion on Friday. Oil exports provide about 90% of Iraq’s revenue, and most of its crude is normally shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Lebanon, Georgieva said the fund was in “very intense discussions” with the authorities. “We have made significant progress toward the program. We have still a bit more work to do together, and I’m confident we will be successful,” she said.
Georgieva said reforms and financial buffers built by Gulf governments had allowed them to “cushion the impact of the shock” from the regional conflict.
The IMF’s steering committee, the International Monetary and Financial Committee, is chaired by Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan. Its members welcomed a one-year extension of his term as chair in a statement issued after the committee’s 54th meeting in Bangkok.
The statement said safe and reliable energy flows and freedom of navigation were essential for global economic stability.
