Rebuilding Iraq may cost up to $100 billion, Bremer says
( 2003-08-01 10:30) (Agencies)
Iraq's US administrator said on Thursday that
rebuilding the country could require anywhere from $50 billion to $100 billion
of outside money over the next couple of years.
Paul Bremer, in an interview with CNBC's "Capital Report," said for at least
the next few years "we're going to have to spend a lot more money than we're
going to get revenues even once we get oil production back to prewar levels."
Bremer said he did not know what the total cost of getting the country up and
running again was, but said: "It's probably well above $50 billion, $60 billion,
maybe $100 billion. It's a lot of money."
United Nations sanctions that had stifled Iraq's economy for 13 years were
lifted in May, when the United States and Britain also won broad powers to run
Iraq and sell its oil until a new government is established. Iraq has the
world's second largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.
Bremer said that eventually he hoped the Iraq would be able to fund itself
through oil revenues but "they've got a real problem in the next few years."
Earlier this week, US senators from both parties criticized the Bush
administration for not spelling out the costs of rebuilding Iraq.
In testimony to Congress, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White
House Budget Director Joshua Bolten said they could not estimate costs because
they said the situation in Iraq was too fluid.
Bolten did say "for the next couple of months" he predicted costs of
maintaining US troops there at about $4 billion per month.
Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware told the two that the administration
was "going to lose the American people if you don't come forward now and tell
them what you know," that it would cost tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer
money and tens of thousands of American troops.
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