Muthar Muhammad Saleh, advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister for financial affairs, called for the implementation of a strategy known as "social market" to provide a diversified economic system that transforms Iraq into a productive power. He anticipated that the country's population would reach 80 million by 2050.
Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency on Sunday that Iraq's population growth is not less than 2.6% annually, the highest in the world, while the country relies on oil, which constitutes 45% of the GDP and affects about 80% of economic growth, contributing 93% of government revenues. "More than 8 million Iraqis receive salaries, pensions, grants, or social aid from the state, meaning that the majority of the Iraqi population receives income from oil revenues under the family support system," according to Muthar Muhammad Saleh, who warned that "the increasing population by one million people annually, along with the continued low employment rates, will cumulatively affect the risks of production disruptions and increasing youth unemployment, which is currently around 23%, while youth make up about 60% of the population."
Despite the rising problems of poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic closure, and last year's decline in oil prices, the system of government salaries, pensions, and subsidies has acted as a safety net to maintain living standards and mitigate social collapses within the current Iraqi support framework. The advisor warned against continued reliance on oil until 2050 without diversifying national income sources, as the country’s population will double and may reach around 80 million people. He also noted that the world is moving towards implementing the Paris Agreement to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, meaning a shift towards renewable energy and a decline in global oil demand.
According to the Planning Ministry, Iraq's population was 40.1 million at the end of last year. Therefore, Saleh called for launching a social market system capable of developing sectors of the economy in manufacturing, cash agriculture, tourism, and services, transforming Iraq into a diverse productive force, provided that oil revenues between 2022 and 2032 are directed towards funding private productive activities and establishing a bold law for social security and protection against forms of unemployment, to generate a prosperous economic system that is diverse in its sources and not dependent on depleting single wealth.
