Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq banking & finance news, with information on developments and opportunities.
By John Lee. Iraq ranks in 11th place worldwide for the amount of money flowing out via crime, corruption and tax evasion over the past ten years, according to Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization. Illicit outflows of cash averaged $10.6 billion per year. Data for Iraq was not available in […]
More than $224 million has been injected into Iraq’s private sector economy in the form of Small & Medium Enterprise bank loans thanks to a cooperative effort between the USAID-Tijara Provincial Economic Growth Program and 12 private commercial banks. Of this amount, around $113 million presently is in circulation helping business owners expand their companies […]
By John Lee. Iraq made its first major move in years to boost its gold reserves, joining central banks from emerging market economies such as Brazil and Russia in diversifying its foreign reserves. According to a report from the Lebanese Daily Star, central bank purchases have been one of the biggest drivers of gold's rally […]
Thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets of al-Anbar province to demand the release of the finance minister's bodyguards. The men were arrested on Thursday on so-called "terror charges". Protesters say its another example of the government's sectarian policies. Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reports: (Source: Al Jazeera)
By John Lee. World Bank Group support for Iraq over the next four years will focus on job creation, social inclusion and building stronger institutions. The Country Partnership Strategy which was discussed today by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors is a four-year engagement framework with a planned US$900 million in support to Iraq. […]
By John Lee. A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee has ruled out dropping the three zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 because "the ground is not prepared yet". MP Majida al-Timimi told AIN: "The process of deleting zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 depends on the nature of the policy of the […]
By John Lee. If we gave a prize for the best quote of the week, this week's top contender would be Sami Haddad, the general manager of Lebanon's Byblos Bank, which is expanding its presence in Iraq. "You would have to be stupid not to make money [in Iraq]", he said. And of course banking […]
By John Lee. Lebanon's biggest bank, Bank Audi, plans to enter the Iraqi market late next year. Chief Executive Samir Hanna (pictured) told Reuters that its new Iraqi operation will be a subsidiary of its Turkish business, which it launched in October and which is trading "more than 50 percent ahead" of the bank's target. […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) has cancelled today's (November 22) session due to a technical fault in the Electronic Trading System. They are working to fix this problem. In addition, there will be no trading session at the ISX on Sunday (November 25) due to an official holiday. [Best forex brokers in […]
By John Lee. A member of the Parliamentary Economy and Investment Committee has told AIN news agency that the 2013 federal budget will include low-interest loans for the industrialists. MP Abdul Hussein Abtan said: "The industrial sector needs such projects because it needs money and support after the embargo imposed on the country during the […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that "thousands" of people are still speculating on a huge upward revaluation of the Iraqi dinar, which it describes as "one of the chanciest investments in the world". It quotes a Las Vegas-based speculator, who previously lost most of his retirement fund on the stock market, as saying: "It's not […]
By John Lee. The board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) voted to guarantee a JPMorgan Chase loan totaling $35 million to Devco International LLC (Devco) of Tulsa, Okla., for the design and construction of a sulfur purification plant in Mosul, Iraq. Ex-Im Bank's financing will support approximately 380 U.S. jobs, […]
