ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) finance ministry departed to Baghdad on Monday night for talks with relevant authorities in the Iraqi government regarding the 2027 federal budget.

The delegation will hold meetings with the federal finance ministry regarding the Kurdistan Region’s share in the upcoming budget, a source from the ministry told The New Region.

The source noted that Erbil has previously forwarded its demands to Baghdad regarding the 2027, adding that one of the main points that will be discussed with the federal government officials is the need to ensure the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget is commensurate with its population.

The KRG has repeatedly emphasized that the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget must be raised to 12.67 percent, in accordance with the Region’s population, which makes up 12.67 percent of Iraq’s total population.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in late August said that the government is currently working on preparing the 2027 budget, which will be sent to parliament for approval “soon”.

“The [federal] Ministry of Finance is directly [involved] in the preparation of the 2027 budget, and prepared the budget strategy and involved the finance committee and a number of ministries and representatives of the [Kurdistan Region], to send it to the committee,” MP Ekhlas al-Dulaimi said in August.

After months of political wrangling, the Iraqi parliament passed a three-year budget for 2023, 2024, and 2025, in June 2023. The budget had an annual value of approximately $153 billion, the largest in the country’s history.

Iraq did not pass a budget in 2026, and instead applied a temporary spending mechanism known as the 1/12th rule, under which the government is allowed to spend monthly based on one-twelfth of the previous year’s actual spending.

The Iraqi parliamentary finance committee in July completed a draft for a domestic and foreign borrowing bill, in light of the financial crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.