Iraqi parliament approves $88 billion 2018 budget: Lawmakers

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaks during a ceremony of Baghdad is the Capital of Arab Media, in Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD: Iraq's parliament approved a budget on Saturday, lawmakers said, but Kurdish MPs boycotted the vote over their region's allocation.
The budget of 104 trillion Iraqi dinars ($88 billion) is based on projected oil exports of 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) at a price of $46.
It envisions government revenues of 91.64 trillion dinars ($77.6 billion) with a deficit of 12.5 trillion dinars ($10.58 billion), according to lawmakers.
The projected 3.8 million bpd exports include a 250,000 bpd contribution from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
"We boycotted the vote and there are proposals for Kurdistan to withdraw from the entire political process in Iraq over the unfair treatment we have received," said Kurdish MP Ashwaq Jaff.
The budget trimmed the Kurdistan Regional Government's share to 12.67 percent, down from the 17 percent the region has traditionally been entitled to since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Oil exports, Iraq's main source of revenue, have risen above 3.4 million barrels per day this year but a global slump in prices for crude, compounded by the costs of rebuilding an infrastructure damaged by the war against Islamic State, have battered the country’s finances.
Iraq received pledges of $30 billion, mostly in credit facilities and investment, this month from allies at a reconstruction conference in Kuwait, but this fell short of the $88 billion Baghdad says it needs to recover from three years of war.