Iraq: Poverty rate fell to 24.8 per cent during second half of 2020

Marwa A

3 years ago

An employee of a currency exchange counter, counts local currency bank notes in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in the Dhi Qar province, on December 20, 2020. - A year of economic agony for pandemic-hit and oil-reliant Iraq is drawing to a close, but a draft 2021 budget involving a hefty currency devaluation could bring more pain for citizens. Iraq, which relies on oil sales to finance 90 percent of its budget, projects that its economy has shrunk by 11 percent this year, while poverty doubles to 40 percent of the country's 40 million residents. (Photo by Asaad NIAZI / AFP) (Photo by ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Iraqi Ministry of Planning said on Tuesday that the poverty rate in the country fell to 24.8 per cent during the second half of 2020 after reaching high levels during the first half of the year at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Spokesman Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi said that the ministry conducted a study in cooperation with the World Bank which showed that the rate fell from 31.7 per cent over the second half of the year.

Al-Hindawi explained that the rate decreased after the government eased the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus, including the lifting of lockdowns and allowing commercial activities to resume.

The Iraqi official noted that there are fewer than 10 million people in Iraq who are classified officially as being in poverty.

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