Planning Ministry announces a decrease in population, warns against enacting a birth control law

BAGHDAD-INA

Ministry of Planning announced Sunday a decrease in the rate of population growth, while warning against the enactment of a birth control law.

 The official spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, said in a statement to Al-Iraqiya News, which was followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), "Ten years ago, the annual population increase was 3.3%, and now it has declined to 2.6%, which means that there is a regression and decline."

 He added, "The reasons range from a decrease in the fertility rate, as well as an increase in the state of awareness, as some families have started planning and are satisfied with only one or two children, and in the most extreme cases, 3 children."

 He continued, "The current population exceeds 41 million people, 50% of whom are of reproductive age," explaining that "talking about enacting a birth control law for economic reasons is not easy because there is a social system that rejects this and it will have negative repercussions on the economic reality in the country that will be transformed from a young society towards an old and consuming people.”

 He continued, "Our expectations for the coming years are that there will be a decline in the rates of population increase, and therefore there is no need for birth control.