The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, announced last week that the poverty rate in Iraq would double to 40% from around 20%. This announcement hardly took anyone in Iraq by surprise.
Iraq, for decades, has been reeling under high poverty rates. In some governorate, like Muthanna, Dhi Qar, and Maysan, poverty rates have risen to about 50% of the general population, as statistics issued by the Ministry of Planning showed.
“The Iraqi economy is expected to contract by 9.7% in 2020, with poverty rates rising to about 40%,” explained Plasschaert, during a briefing at the UN Security Council.
It is clear that the predictions of the UN official were based on solid data agreed on by most experts and economists in Iraq and the world. The economic contraction will be a result of years of corruption and mismanagement, poor investment and job opportunities, and complex economic problems caused by a coronavirus pandemic.
More so, the catastrophic drop in oil prices constitutes the largest economic crisis facing Iraq. The Levantine country's dependence on oil revenues for 95% of its federal budget that covers government expenditures.
“It’s been years since economic recession and poverty factors have been in motion,” Iraqi economist Salam Smaysam said, adding that new factors are also at play. This, according to Smaysam, has contributed to lower living conditions for Iraqis and increased poverty rates.
“Mismanagement and corruption have squandered the country's wealth, and acts of violence, terrorism, and armed gangs have deprived the country of investment opportunities, so we are in constant decline, and the expectations of the UN representative are not far from reality,” Smaysam told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“Poverty existed previously, but other conditions worsened it,” she noted, explaining that “displacement and terrorism have put many families under the poverty line, after they were stable once and had income-generating businesses.”
