Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq banking & finance news, with information on developments and opportunities.
Reuters reports that Iraq's core annual inflation rose to 5.5 per cent in February versus 5.3 per cent in January, driven by increases in the cost of power, rental and housing. "February's year-on-year core inflation was 5.5 per cent", Mudher Kasim, a senior advisor at the Iraqi Central Bank, told Reuters. (Source: Reuters)
According to a report from AKnews, a number of bankers in Baghdad have demanded that the Iraqi parliament legislates to regulate and protect their businesses from market changes because of the sudden decisions taken by the Iraqi government. Ali Abdul-Zahra, owner of an foreign exchange bureau, told AKnews that banking in Iraq is still precarious […]
The state-run Trade Bank of Iraq plans to set up a $500 million private-equity fund to invest in projects in the country, and will next month look to identify a global player to act as the fund's general partner, according to a report from Reuters. Hussein Al-Uzri, president and chairman of the bank, said it […]
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. I was pleasantly ‘perplexed’ to learn that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, approved (on February 7, 2011) an agricultural project for developing biofuel from rotting dates. The ‘dates-to-biofuel’ project implemented by an unnamed company based in UAE, […]
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The increase in world crude oil prices this year will add $8 billion [9.6 trillion Iraqi dinars] to the Iraqi budget, the Secretary-General of Iraq’s Council of Ministers said. Ali al-Allaq (pictured) told al-Sabah Newspaper in Baghdad on Tuesday that the increase would result in additional allocations to for the implementation of projects. He added […]
The demonstrations seen throughout Iraq over the past two weeks have so far had no discernable effect on the ISX. As of February 24, the RSISX index had risen 19% year-to-date to a new high for the year. Iraq is now the region’s top performer. This strong performance is not hard to understand. In contrast […]
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 […]
