Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq banking & finance news, with information on developments and opportunities.
The United Nations has prepared a comprehensive Briefing Book on Iraq, and presented it to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The book is comprised of two parts: The first part addresses key policy issues, including: macroeconomic challenges, development planning and prioritization, governance and public sector reform, anti-corruption, private sector development, social protection and the challenges of […]
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Recent demonstrations across the country in Sulimaniya, Kirkuk, Basra, Kut and other provinces are indicative of the growing disenchantment among the youth who are often jobless or underemployed despite Iraq’s tremendous oil and gas resources. According […]
Around $34 million is "missing" from a post-Gulf War fund that Iraq maintains to protect the money from foreign claims, its parliamentary speaker said on Monday as authorities scrambled to head off further protests on cutting politicians' pay and ramping up support for the needy. "There is missing money, we do not know where it […]
On February 14, the National Iraqi News Agency reported that the import tariff increases originally scheduled to go into effect on March 6 are being suspended until further notice. (The story is at http://www.ninanews.com/english/News_Details.asp?ar95_VQ=FFHEEK.) This is not surprising. With protestors already in the streets in some places, now can hardly be the best time to […]
The Ministry of Planning and Development has reported that the inflation rate increased by 2% in January, bringing the rate to 5.8%. Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi told AKnews that the reasons behind the high inflation rate are higher rents and increases in the prices of imported food. The Ministry of Planning and Development in Iraq suggested […]
Starting March 6, Iraq will begin imposing import tariffs ranging from zero to 80%. For many products, this will be a big increase. Up to now, importers have been subject to a uniform tariff of only 5%, which covered everything except food, medicine, books, clothing and products related to humanitarian assistance or Iraq’s reconstruction. (For […]
Abdul Hussein Al-Anbuge, an Iraqi government economic adviser, has urged the country's private lenders to merge in order to strengthen their capital and provide stronger support to the banking sector, AK News has reported. The total capital of Iraqi private banks rose from $30m in 2004 to $1.6bn now, not including what is owned by […]
With a year-to-date return of 14.6% as of February 7, the Rabee Securities RSISX index is the region’s second best performer so far this year. Only Iran’s TEPIX index, up 16.4%, did better. Regional stock markets have generally mirrored the lackluster performance of the Morgan Stanley global emerging markets index, which is down 1.8% year-to-date. […]
Last week the federal supreme court ruled in favor of the government's request to have the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), along with the Independent High Electoral Commission, the Integrity Commission, and the High Commission for Human Rights, put under the supervision of the cabinet. This is bad news for the central bank. Up to […]
Following the Supreme Court decision to place several independent bodies under the control of the Iraqi cabinet, rather than the parliament, a legal expert has said that the Central Bank of Iraq is an independent body that cannot be linked to the Cabinet. According to the report from AKnews, the Central Bank of Iraq warned […]
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has won a court ruling placing independent bodies like the central bank and the electoral agency under the control of the cabinet, rather than the parliament, a centralization of power that critics are calling a "coup." Maliki's government made the request to the supreme court in December before he was […]
Warka’s moment of truth last Wednesday (Jan 19) turned out to be a nonevent. It seems the general assembly meeting had to be postponed for a week due to lack of a quorum. To put it another way, the chairman, who holds 60% of the stock, didn’t show up. (See my last post for more […]
