BAGHDAD, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament on Thursday passed a bill for the country's 2019 federal budget with about 112 billion U.S. dollars after long hours of debate among the parliamentary blocs.
A parliament session, chaired by Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and attended by 287 lawmakers, started late on Wednesday evening and managed to pass the budget draft in the early hours of Thursday.
According to a parliament statement, the proposed budget estimated revenues at 89 billion dollars and a deficit at about 23 billion dollars, based on an average oil price of 56 dollars per barrel and crude export of 3.88 million barrels per day (bpd), including 250,000 bpd from the Kurdish region.
The approval came after heated debates among political blocs over controversial items, including the share of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The Kurdish lawmakers finally reached a compromise with the leading political blocs that the government will pay salaries for the region's government employees and the Kurdish security forces known as Peshmerga.
At a press conference after the session, Kurdish lawmakers described the budget as "a major achievement and fruit of efforts by Kurdish lawmakers from all Kurdish parliamentary blocs."
According to Iraqi law, the annual budget must be approved by the Iraqi presidency following the parliamentary approval.
Iraqi economy relies heavily on crude oil exports, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the country's revenues.
In 2017, it was announced that Iraq's proven oil reserves increased to 153 billion barrels from a previously estimated 143.1 billion ones.
