Budget Talks Between Kurdistan Region and Iraq Continue for 2027

A delegation from the Kurdistan Government is awaiting an official invitation from the Iraqi Ministry of Finance to continue discussions regarding the 2027 federal budget draft. While a mutual understanding has been reached regarding the treatment of salaries as employees' rights, disagreements continue over sovereign expenditures, Peshmerga expenses, and Article 10 of the budget draft.

The Kurdistan Regional Government delegation is awaiting a new meeting date to be set by the Iraqi Minister of Finance in order to continue discussions on the 2027 federal budget draft. While awaiting the official invitation, the next meeting is anticipated to take place by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. An official from the Kurdistan Regional Government stated that, for the first time since 2003, the Kurdish side participated in the preparation process of the budget draft.

A consensus was reached during the meetings that salaries should be addressed as employee rights rather than a government share, and that they should be evaluated under the same status as other regions of Iraq. However, Article 10 of the budget draft, population ratios, oil and non-oil revenues, and sovereign expenditure items constitute the main areas of disagreement between the parties. The fact that the federal government includes the expenses of the Ministry of Defense and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in sovereign expenditures while excluding the expenses of the Peshmerga forces stands out as a significant point of contention.