Iraq has signed an agreement to receive the first of two $250 million loans from the World Bank to help the country plug its budget deficit, the finance ministry said Thursday. The announcement came around three weeks after the International Monetary Fund approved a $3.6 billion to the war-torn country. “An agreement for a loan of $250 million was signed with the World Bank,” Finance Minister Baqer Jaber Solagh said in a statement, adding the loan was part of a $500 million package. The loan, which is to be issued in cash, would help to “finance the 2010 public deficit,” Solagh said. Iraq projects a budget deficit of $19.6 billion, or 27.1 percent of total expenditure, in 2010. The IMF approved its loan to Iraq on February 24, saying it was to help the country meet “balance of payments needs” after the economy was hit hard by falling oil prices in 2009. Oil account for 85 percent of government revenues. Meawhile, Iraq's Transport Ministry is looking to bring forward delivery of new aircraft from Boeing as it presses ahead with expanding the operations of national airline Iraqi Airways, the transport minister said. Amer Abdul-Jabbar said Iraqi Airways currently owns just four ageing planes and depends mainly on leased aircraft, which are expensive, so the ministry is trying to get the first deliveries this year.
