Iraq: Iraq Gets $1.5 bln Loan to Cope with Low Oil Price, ISIS

Dec 21, 2016 | Reuters
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The World Bank has approved a new loan of $1.485 billion to help Iraq lessen the impact of low oil prices on its economy and shoulder the cost of the war on ISIS, the international lender said in a statement on Tuesday. The new loan brings the World Bank’s engagement in Iraq to nearly $3.4 billion, it said. The Bank provided $1.2 billion and $350 million in support to Iraq in 2015, a year after ISIS seized about a third of the country’s territory. The lightning advance of ISIS happened as oil prices collapsed, drastically reducing the government’s income, which comes almost exclusively from crude sales.