Baghdad The specialist in managing state institutions in crises, Ali Jabbar Al-Furaji, confirmed that the high poverty rate in Iraq to 52% is frightening and dangerous.
Al-Furaji said in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA / that “the reports of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank read poverty in Iraq at shameful rates, indicating that the income of more than 4.2 million people below the poverty line is added to the rates of the 7.5 million people who were basically within the poverty rates in Iraq during the stage of the Covid-19 crisis, the decline in oil sales rates, and the change in the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar.
He pointed out that “the poverty rate in Iraq doubled in the year 2020, as 40% of the population of 40 million is considered poor, according to the World Bank.”
He explained that “the global poverty line rate depends on $ 1.9 per person per day globally, and this is what the Ministry of Planning adopts, which is a mistake, indicating that the poverty line criterion is variable according to the possibility and revenues of countries as well as the rates of wealth – for example in America, the poverty rate line is completely different, as it reaches 11.5 $ per person per day.
He added: According to the report of the Ministry of Planning, the poverty rate in Iraq is 22%, at a rate of $1.9 dollars per person per day, and these rates are an attempt to beautify the situation and escape from the real rates.
He stressed that “a rate of $5.5 per capita today in Iraq must be calculated by virtue of Iraq’s revenues and capabilities, as it is classified as one of the rich countries in its income and cash reserves, and with this criterion, the poverty rate in Iraq rises to 52%, which is a frightening and dangerous, in addition to poverty rates another serious problem, which is that 42% of the population are classified as vulnerable groups, as they face a higher risk of being deprived in many dimensions (education, health, public services), according to the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization “FAO” and the World Food Program.
It is noteworthy that the International Monetary Fund warned of the high rates of poverty in Iraq in the event of raising the value of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency