Iraq's non-oil revenue climbs 23.5%, now a quarter of income

Summary

• Non-oil revenue reached 10.6 trillion dinars in eight months, 23% of Iraq's total public income.
• Receipts outside oil rose 23.5% year-on-year through July, hitting about 8.7 trillion dinars.
• Spending still outpaces income by roughly 33.5 trillion dinars, keeping oil central to the budget.

The latest

Non-oil receipts supplied about 23% of Iraq's total public revenue in the first eight months of 2026, the prime minister's financial adviser Mudhar Mohammed Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency. He said maximizing revenue outside crude strengthens fiscal stability and the state's capacity to fund its obligations and development projects, as Baghdad works toward an economy less dependent on oil.

Details

• The headline figure: Saleh said financial data show total public revenue of roughly 45.4 trillion dinars over the first eight months of 2026. Of that, 34.7 trillion dinars came from oil and about 10.6 trillion dinars from non-oil sources, putting the non-oil share at close to 23% of all state income.
• The growth rate: Non-oil revenue rose 23.5% in the first seven months of this year against the same period of 2025, reaching about 8.7 trillion dinars, according to Saleh, who described the increase as a positive indicator for the diversification effort.
• The spending gap: Finance Ministry data through the end of August 2026 put public expenditure at roughly 78.9 trillion dinars against 45.4 trillion dinars in revenue, Saleh said — a shortfall of about 33.5 trillion dinars over the same eight-month window.
• The policy argument: Saleh framed the government's push to maximize available financial resources as a step toward fiscal stability, arguing it raises the state's ability to finance its commitments and development projects while Iraq builds an economy less tied to crude receipts.
• Oil still dominant: Despite the growth outside crude, oil accounted for 34.7 trillion dinars of the eight-month total — more than three times the non-oil figure. The diversification Saleh describes shifts the balance at the margins rather than displacing hydrocarbons as the budget's principal funding source.
• Two reference periods: The 23% contribution share is calculated over eight months, while the 23.5% growth rate covers seven months, meaning the two figures Saleh cited rest on different windows and are not directly comparable measures of the same trend.
• What wasn't specified: Saleh did not break down which non-oil streams — taxes, customs, fees or state enterprise returns — drove the increase, nor did he identify how the gap between spending and revenue is being financed through the remainder of the fiscal year.

Background

Iraq's budget has long been built on crude sales, leaving public finances exposed to price swings in global oil markets. Raising the share of revenue collected outside the hydrocarbon sector has been a stated objective of successive economic plans.

Between the lines

The two numbers point in opposite directions. Non-oil receipts growing 23.5% is a genuine movement, but with oil still delivering 34.7 trillion dinars against 10.6 trillion from everything else, and spending running 33.5 trillion dinars ahead of income, the diversification gain is far too small to close the fiscal gap on its own.

What's next

Watch Finance Ministry releases covering the final months of 2026 to see whether the non-oil growth rate holds, and whether the gap between the 78.9 trillion dinars in spending and 45.4 trillion in revenue narrows.

Source: Iraqi News Agency (INA)