RIYADH: The world’s fastest population growth is accelerating the need for a more diversified economic system in oil-dependent Iraq, according to a top government minister.
Iraqi Prime Minister Financial Affairs Adviser Mazhar Mohammed Saleh called for a new “social market” to reduce oil dependence and boost investment in key sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism and service areas, Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
Saleh warned against depending on oil until 2050 without diversifying the sources of national income.
The population growth in Iraq is not less than 2.6 percent annually- the highest in the world, Saleh told INA.
The country depends on oil, which constitutes 45 percent of the GDP and affects about 80 percent of the growth of the economy, contributing to 93 percent of the government’s revenues, he explained.
“More than 8 million Iraqis receive salaries, a pension, a grant or a social benefit from the state, which means that the majority of the Iraqi people receive income from oil revenues under the family support system,” he said. “The country’s population increase by one million people annually, and the employment rates at low annual levels, will cumulatively affect the risks of production disruption and the increase in unemployment among young people, which is currently approximately 23 percent.”
Iraq’s population reached 40.1 million at the end of last year, according to data from the Ministry of Planning.
World’s fastest population growth demands new economic order in Iraq, says adviser
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World’s fastest population growth demands new economic order in Iraq, says adviser
- Iraqi Prime Minister Financial Affairs Adviser Mazhar Mohammed Saleh called for a new “social market” to reduce oil dependence
Emerging markets should depend less on external funding, says Nigeria finance minister
RIYADH: Developing economies must rely less on external financing as high global interest rates and geopolitical tensions continue to strain public finances, Nigeria’s finance minister told Al-Eqtisadiah.
Asked how Nigeria is responding to rising global interest rates and conflicts between major powers such as the US and China, Wale Edun said that current conditions require developing countries to rethink traditional financing models.
“I think what it means for countries like Nigeria, other African countries, and even other developing countries is that we have to rely less on others and more on our own resources, on our own devices,” he said on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies.
He added: “We have to trade more with each other, we have to cooperate and invest in each other.”
Edun emphasized the importance of mobilizing domestic resources, particularly savings, to support investment and long-term economic development.
According to Edun, rising debt servicing costs are placing an increasing burden on developing economies, limiting their ability to fund growth and social programs.
“In an environment where developing countries as a whole — what we are paying in debt service, what we are paying in terms of interest costs and repayments of our debt — is more than we are receiving in what we call overseas development assistance, and it is more than even investments by wealthy countries in our economies,” he said.
Edun added that countries in the Global South are increasingly recognizing the need for deeper regional integration.
His comments reflect growing concern among developing nations that elevated borrowing costs and global instability are reshaping development finance, accelerating a shift toward domestic resource mobilization and stronger economic ties among emerging markets.
