On Thursday, February 12, at 10:00 a.m. ET, the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative will examine the economic challenges and opportunities confronting Iraq’s incoming government. 

Iraq’s next government will assume office amid a less favorable economic environment than in recent years. The expansionary 2023–2025 budget cycle was supported by high oil prices, fiscal surpluses, and relative political stability. A softer oil price outlook and tightening fiscal space are likely to create economic headwinds over the next year, constraining public spending, testing reform momentum, and intensifying tradeoffs between political accommodation and economic discipline. 

This event will explore how political leaders may respond to fiscal pressures and what this means for policy continuity or adjustment under the next prime minister. The discussion will cover infrastructure and development initiatives, engagement with US companies, banking and dollar-access reforms, and the outlook for northern oil exports and Baghdad–Erbil relations. 

Please complete the form below to register for this event.

Opening remarks

Jihad Azour
Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Speakers

Mais Abbas Abousy
Assistant General Council
US International Development Finance Corporation

More speakers to be announced.

Moderated by

Ahmed Tabaqchali
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Iraq Initiative
Atlantic Council

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The Iraq Initiative is driving policy-oriented programs and analysis that advance Iraq’s stability and sovereignty, regional integration, and democratic and economic development. It also aims to promote a strengthened US-Iraq partnership.

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