2024 budget spending reveals contained deficit but missed investment targets

After months of delay, the Ministry of Finance has finally released the 2024 end-of-year budget execution figures. The data shows that the government significantly underspent its budget and recorded a much smaller deficit than projected—offering some signs of fiscal restraint, but also highlighting persistent structural weaknesses in capital investment and revenue diversification.

According to Iraq Horizons’ analysis, total government expenditure stood at 150 trillion IQD—only 71% of the budgeted amount. Despite concerns over overspending, the actual deficit reached just 9.3 trillion IQD, far below the initially projected 63.2 trillion IQD. This was largely due to a combination of higher-than-expected oil revenues and under-execution of capital spending.