Baghdad and the KRG remain deadlocked over budget

摘要

Iraq's federal government and the Kurdis- tan Regional Government (KRG) remain deadlocked over federal government pay- ments to foreign companies producing crude in the KRG-controlled upstream. The impasse is holding up parliamen- tary approval of Iraq's 138 trillion dinar ($119bn) budget for 2013, paralysing government spending (WPA, 15 Febru- ary, p8). The disagreement is over the KRG' s demand that the federal govern- ment include an allocation of $4.2bn to pay cost money owed to foreign firms producing crude in the KRG-run upstream. Failure to ratify the budget is exacerbating political instability in Iraq.