ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) finance ministry on Monday announced signing loan contracts with three Iraqi state-owned banks worth a combined 700 billion dinars.
“Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab on Monday… signed a contract in Baghdad to receive 200 billion dinars as a loan from Rasheed Bank,” said the ministry in a statement, referring to one of Iraq’s largest state-owned banks.
The KRG ministry has in recent days also signed loan contracts with the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) and Rafidain Bank worth 500 billion dinars, the statement added. The ministry had previously announced that the loan contract with Rafidain Bank is worth 250 billion dinars.
The announcement comes a day after Iraq’s finance ministry revealed it has begun the procedures to send 700 billion dinars to Erbil, the third and final installment of a 2.1 trillion Iraqi dinar loan the federal government agreed in September with the KRG to cover three months of payroll after public sector employees in the Region went unpaid for nearly 90 days.
The KRG has repeatedly claimed that it needs over 900 billion dinars per month to pay civil servant salaries.
The frequent delay in paying salaries, which has been an issue for the cash-strapped KRG for nearly a decade, has exacerbated the concerns of civil servants, many of whom have no other source of income.
Frustrated teachers in several parts of the Kurdistan Region have been on strike since September, demanding salaries be paid regularly, every month.
