In the predominantly Shiite city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, Kazem al-Boukhati, a dealer of car tires, said that he has not visited the tire wholesale markets in the Al-Zuyout area near Rusafa in Baghdad — which has a Shiite majority — for two weeks following the series of bombings that targeted various areas in the capital.
Boukhati told Al-Monitor, "I had to go to Erbil to obtain the goods, which increases transportation expenses." He added, "The distance between Baghdad and Kut is only about 150 kilometers [93 miles], whereas it is more than 400 kilometers [250 miles] between Erbil and Kut."
Near the predominantly Sunni Karkh district of Baghdad, Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, who runs a real-estate company called Mina, told Al-Monitor that the prices of houses have dropped about 10% over the past three months, and continue to decline due to residents’ fears of attacks by Shiite militias. As a result, the number of houses for sale has considerably increased.
Bayati said, "Residents of the Al-Jami’ah, Mansur, Ghazaliya and Al-Khadra neighborhoods in the Karkh district are offering their homes for sale, dramatically increasing supply over demand, which has led to a drop in prices."
In the Aqd al-Nasara Market in central Baghdad, which specializes in the wholesale trade of electrical supplies, Mounir Kamel, owner of Mounir Center for the Trade of Electrical Tools, said, "Sales and purchasing activities are declining by the day.” He told Al-Monitor that “In our transactions, we depend to a large extent on traders coming from the [other] provinces, and they are currently afraid to come to Baghdad."
He added, "We ask the dealers in the provinces: 'Why don’t you come to Baghdad?' The Sunnis say that they fear the checkpoints set up by Shiite gunmen, and the Shiites say that they fear the bombings carried out by Sunni insurgents."
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