Budget including deficit, KRG deal sent to Parliament

ERBIL - Iraq's Cabinet balanced a collapse in oil revenue while maintaining spending commitments needed to placate key constituents and keep up the fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group in a draft budget for 2015 that it approved Tuesday.

The budget calls for spending of around 123 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $102.5 billion), said Abdul Qadir Omar, a member of the Parliament Finance Committee who received a copy of the approved draft.