MOP: No poverty indicators were announced for this year

MOP: No poverty indicators were announced for this year

Baghdad - INA

The Ministry of Planning, on Thursday, denied announcing any new indicators of poverty during the current year 2021.

The ministry said in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "what was circulated by the media, from indicators, described as dating back to 2021, are not true, but they are expectations set for 2020, during the exposure of Iraq and the world to the first waves of the pandemic." And he added, “The indicators reached by the study, which was prepared by the ministry in cooperation with the World Bank, were according to expected scenarios, related to the ban and closure procedures, the decline in financial resources, the rise in prices, during the past year, and the direct effects of the pandemic on the health, education, and economy sectors.” And development in about a year and the continuation of these measures, and according to those scenarios, expectations indicated a rise in multidimensional poverty rates, which include poverty of services in (health, education, housing, and income) from 20% in 2019 to more than 30% in 2020.”.

in addition to that the ministry added: "Many of these predictive scenarios were not achieved, but they were used in developing the treatments, which were included in the Corona recovery plan launched by the ministry during the current year, and included a set of procedures and policies in three main axes, which are economic, social and spatial.".

furthermore, Planning ministry indicated that "the poverty rate did not rise to the level expected by the study, and therefore the preliminary indicators available to the ministry, now, indicate that the poverty rate throughout the country does not generally exceed the indicator of that reading before the Corona pandemic."

MOP also stressed that its "continuing to prepare for conducting an economic and social survey for families in cooperation with the World Bank and relevant international organizations, which will give a more accurate map of all kinds of poverty indicators, as well as the ongoing preparations to implement the general population and housing census in Iraq during the next year 2022, which will represent the detailed figures for all indicators." and explained that it was "relying on government support to conduct it."