ROME (Sputnik) — Italy is ready to help Iraq, which is negatively affected by the low oil prices, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Wednesday.
"Such low oil prices could be explained by a thousand geopolitical reasons, and they are affecting many countries. On the part of the G7, G20 [group of countries] and the international community, we agreed on the need to pay attention to such countries as Iraq, in order to help rebuild the economy in this wonderful country," Renzi said at a press conference in Rome.
On January 12, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the Iraqi economy was facing a double shock arising from the Islamic State (ISIL) attacks and the sharp drop in global oil prices.
The fight with ISIL hurts the non-oil sector of the Iraqi economy, while the oil price decline has impacted the budget and the economic sector, along with Iraq’s medium-term growth potential, the IMF explained in a statement.
