With Lamborghinis and Rooftop Sushi, Why Is Kurdistan Broke?
A yellow Lamborghini rolled past the Tche Tche café, where men and women were lazily smoking sheesha (a syrupy tobacco mix) and drinking tea. Moments later, a large black Land Rover glided by. Looking out from the café, glass and concrete towers glinted in the sun. One of them is the five-star Divan Hotel where […]Sharon Behn writes for Voice of America:
A yellow Lamborghini rolled past the Tche Tche café, where men and women were lazily smoking sheesha (a syrupy tobacco mix) and drinking tea. Moments later, a large black Land Rover glided by. Looking out from the café, glass and concrete towers glinted in the sun. One of them is the five-star Divan Hotel where a rooftop restaurant boasts expensive champagne and sushi.
This is Kurdistan, and the regional government is technically broke.
Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani admits the country is experiencing a serious economic crisis. But he says the causes are largely external.
“In 2014, without any previous consultation, Baghdad cut our budget,” Barzani told VOA in a recent interview. Baghdad says it cut the budget because the regional government was selling oil and keeping the profits, and Irbil says it started selling oil to cover its budget needs. The dispute remains unresolved.
“Second, the war with Daesh,” Barzani continued, using the local term for Islamic State (IS). “Third, the arrival of 1.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons.”
Those events, combined with the drop in the price of oil, have squeezed the KRG and forced it to ask for international help from the World Bank, the IMF and the United States.
