Iraq has managed to slash its foreign debt by more than half over the past two years following a decision to restructure part of the debt, repay some of it and cancel planned borrowing for projects, a government spokesman has said.

From around $19.7 billion at the end of 2022, the OPEC member’s foreign debt shrank to nearly $15.9 billion in mid-2023 and is $8.9 billion currently, Bassim Al-Awadi told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Sunday.

“The government has taken a series of measures to manage the foreign debt.....we do not want to mortgage the national economy to foreign commitments that may affect political decisions in the future,” he said.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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