The financial woes of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) continued in November as a mixture of lower oil prices and prepayment debt obligations caused revenues to sink. This more than offset sizeable increases in production and sales, with the $375mn net amount received by the KRG after payment obligations way below the $430mn it needs to pay salaries.
November’s takings represented a fall of $42mn on October’s net government receipts. The key dampener remains Kurdistan’s huge debt to oil buyers for prepayments in 2014 and 2015. Ashti Hawrami, KRG Minister of Natural Resources, puts the debt accrued to buyers in 2014-15 at $2.3bn, of which MEES estimates around $350mn has been paid off this year, leaving almost $2bn outstanding. (CONTINUED - 805 WORDS)
