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BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament passed a $58.6 billion budget Thursday after agreeing to sharp cuts amid falling oil prices.
The budget was approved after political blocs reached a compromise to break a weeks-long deadlock, according to Sami al-Atroushi, a member of the parliament's finance committee.
He said lawmakers agreed to further cut the budget by about $4 billion. The government's original spending proposal was about $79 billion but it already had faced an earlier round of cuts as oil prices dipped from a mid-July high of $150 to under $45.
The measure now must be approved by Iraq's three-member presidential council led by President Jalal Talabani.
Oil exports account for about 95 percent of Iraq's revenue, and the pinch has brought calls by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for proposals to diversify Iraq's economy with expansion of agriculture and other trade.
The drop in prices had raised concerns that additional cuts in reconstruction and military purchases might be needed.
But al-Atroushi said the cuts were focused on unnecessary expenses of the governmental ministries. He said the approved budget was based on a projected oil price of $50 per barrel and an export capacity of 2 million barrels per day.
Al-Atroushi and a Shiite lawmaker with close ties to the government, Abbas al-Bayati, said the cuts were made in the operational budget and did not affect the salaries of government employees.
Al-Bayati said some lawmakers had proposed a 10 percent cut but lawmakers settled on 7 percent.
Parliament had repeatedly postponed voting on the proposed budget after calls for deeper austerity, but lawmakers on Thursday pressed for speedy passage as the impasse has blocked progress in other areas.
"The budget should be distant from political issues, but unfortunately it is seen from a political perspective," said Baha al-Araji, a Shiite member of the bloc that is loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"It is true that there are a lot of holes, blemishes and wide space for squandering and stealing in it, but we can't hinder it any longer as we have to offer services to our people," he added in remarks made at a news conference before the vote.
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Associated Press Writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.
