Al-Kadhimi’s advisor presents a solution to protect the Iraqi energy market from the fluctuations in the crude oil markets

BAGHDAD-INA

The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Midhher Muhammad Saleh, identified Wednesday two factors that may stand behind the possibility of a recession in the global economy in the coming months.

Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "there are two factors for the possibility of the global economy heading towards economic stagnation in the coming months, as the first factor is the strict monetary policy of the strongest economy in the world, which is the economy of the United States, which will lead to the policies of raising interest rates undertaken by the US Federal Reserve Bank.

He pointed out that "the second factor is the development of trends in the Chinese economy, which is the second largest economy in the world and has entered the Cold War phase with the West, which means that the growth of the Chinese economy will be indirectly affected by the global recession and various forms of economic boycott."

He continued: "There is no doubt that Iraq, whose economy depends on crude oil exports, will be affected by the price drops (if they occur) and will undoubtedly cause a decrease in the country's financial returns, so a mechanism must be applied that is to go as an accelerated future view towards employing the accumulation of financial surpluses.

​He continued: "Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a policy of accelerated transformation from the policy of exporting crude oil to exporting oil products, in a manner that ensures the stability of the limits of Iraq's financial and economic sustainability from the fluctuations of oil markets during the next ten years."

He concluded by saying: "Thus, protecting the Iraqi energy market from fears of future crude oil market price fluctuations can only be achieved by raising the added value of the crude oil itself, by adopting the policy of manufacturing oil derivatives immediately by investing in (giant refineries with various products and few losses), as agreed upon by all energy experts in Iraq.