By Prensa Latina
Baghdad : Iraqi authorities will reduce food rations in 2008, due to a shortage of funds, Trade Minister Abdul Falah al Sudany said on Thursday.
The minister commented that of the seven billion dollars requested as next year’s budget, the central government only delivered three billion, so only five basic food items instead of ten, as was planned, would be distributed.
The food items that will be guaranteed next year are sugar, rice, flour, milk and edible oil, while lentil, chickpea and soup will be taken from the reserve and cannot be replaced due to the shortage of funds, he pointed out.
The minister added that more than 60 percent of Iraqis depend on those rations.
The food situation in Iraq has worsened after more than four years of US-led foreign occupation, and several years of economic sanctions imposed on the Mesopotamian country since 1990.