Iraq's budgetary allocation for projects in 2021 will focus more on stalled and ongoing projects than on new projects, the financial advisor to the Iraqi government said.

Mudher Muhammed Saleh told Zawya Projects that projects have been allocated 20 percent of the 2021 budget.

"There are new projects, but in my opinion, they are few due to the need to support more than 6,000 stalled and ongoing projects," he said.

Saleh added that there are about 19,000 ongoing projects with a total worth of 200 billion Iraqi dinars ($168.2 million). He also noted that the 2021 budget deficit is about 71 trillion dinars ($48.6 billion).

In July 2020, UNICEF said 4.5 million (11.7 percent) Iraqis were pushed below the poverty line as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and the associated socio-economic impacts. Losses to jobs and rising prices have caused the national poverty rate to climb to 31.7 percent from 20 percent in 2018, it said.

(Reporting by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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