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Middle East Review of International Affairs
Bean Counting in Baghdad: Debt, Reparations, Reconstruction, and Resources
by Robert Looney
*
Abstract
The Iraqi economy is in complete shambles. Even worse, the population is burdened with up to $400 billion in debt, reparations and contractual commitments made under Saddam Hussein’s regime. This article examines the fiscal challenges facing the country over the next decade. Given likely oil revenues, it considers whether there will be enough money to reconstruct the economy and revitalize the oil industry? Even on the assumption of considerable debt forgiveness and foreign aid, it appears impossible to meet the government’s operating and reconstruction costs without some sort of privatization of the oil sector.
Full PDF Document, 13 pages, 72 kb
Note *: Robert E. Looney is a professor of economics and Associate Chairman for Instruction, Department of National Security Affairs, at the Naval Post Graduate School, Monterey California. He has written twenty books on various aspects of economic development with an emphasis on the budgets of Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. Back