Iraq has cut crude production by some 200,000 barrels per day as part of an OPEC oil cartel agreement aimed at boosting flagging prices, the oil ministry's spokesman said Thursday.

"Iraq reduced its production to around 4.6 million barrels (per day)" from more than 4.8 million, Assem Jihad told AFP.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed last year to cut production to reduce a global supply glut that had kept prices painfully low.

The accord represented a dramatic reversal from OPEC's Saudi-led strategy, introduced in 2014, of flooding the market to pressure rivals, in particular US shale oil producers.

Iraq was especially hard hit by the fall in oil prices, which came as it fought a costly war against jihadists, and after government mismanagement and corruption had squandered vast oil revenues when prices were high.