Analysis of the relationship between financial sustainability and
government spending in Iraq for the period (2004-2019)
Batool Mutar Ibadi
Sarah Jaber Hussein
Al-Qadisiyah University – College of Administration and Economics
Corresponding Author: Sarah Jaber Hussein
Abstract : The research aims to study ways to achieve financial sustainability in Iraq, as well as to measure the type
and direction of the relationship between financial sustainability indicators and government spending in Iraq and for
the period (2004-2019), the main research problem was increasingly Government spending that exacerbated public
debt rates and imposed future financial obligations on the country, and that the benefits and installments of public
debt conflict with the possibilities of achieving financial sustainability in Iraq. To test the research hypotheses, the
program Eveiws10 was used, and the research resulted in several conclusions, the most important of which were: The
results of the sustainability indicators for public revenues (the extent of revenue coverage, oil revenue coverage of
total revenue, non-oil revenue for total revenue, and the tax gap) indicate that financial sustainability It was not
achieved in Iraq during the research period, and in light of the conclusions, a set of recommendations were reached,
the most prominent of which are: The government must work to reduce the deficit in the public budget by
rationalizing government spending and controlling it in proportion to the volume of investment spending to achieve
the maximum possible benefit from public expenditures and the development of economic sectors non-oil. In addition
to that, work continuously to find alternative sources of oil revenues and diversify sources of income through the
development of legislation that would maximize revenues from state property and find the appropriate and court
mechanism to control the border crossings’ revenue streams and tax revenues.
Keywords: financial sustainability, public expenditures, public revenues, public debt
