Iraq Business News brings you the latest news of investments in Iraq, highlighting the many opportunities that exist.
Iraq needs foreign investors in the oil sector to help break a bottleneck at its southern ports, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said. "We have no restrictions on their [foreign investors] entry. We want them," Maliki told The Wall Street Journal. "We need speed. We need money." Maliki last year gave the nod to a […]
The Chairman of Iraq's National Investment Commission (NIC), Dr. Sami Al- Araji, confirmed during his meeting with the Netherlands Ambassador to Baghdad, the National Investment Commission's willingness to create huge economic partnerships between Iraq and Netherlands in various sectors. Dr. Al- Araji said during the meeting that the commission is ready to grant investors willing […]
2010 saw hundreds of trade agreements signed, a score of new consulates opened, and dozens of countries and thousands of companies scrambling to get in on the Iraq story. Inflation has remained low all year and exchange rates have been stable. The oil price averaged $15-$20 above the $62.50 price allowed for in the Iraq budget. […]
South Korea's STX Heavy Industries concluded a deal with Iraq for a petrochemical plant in the southern city of Basra, according to Aswat al-Iraq. A Basra official said.“The delegation discussed with the governor the mechanism to implement a memorandum of understanding the company signed with the industry ministry to rehabilitate the petrochemical complex in Basra.” The […]
With a new Iraqi government now finally formed, Basra's desire for a referendum on becoming semi-autonomous may finally get past Baghdad's stalling tactics. The Iraqi constitution allows provinces to become semi-autonomous, just like the northern region of Kurdistan. The Associated Press reported on the pros and cons, writing that Basra would be able to stop […]
I used to think that rapid increases in Iraqi oil production would practically guarantee a significant strengthening of the dinar over the next ten years. Surprisingly, however, history suggests that this is far from a foregone conclusion. While the Oil Ministry claims that Iraqi capacity will rise by 10 million barrels per day (mn bbl/d) […]
Last week a Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) official revealed that October year-on-year core CPI inflation jumped to 3.2% from just 1.87% in September, breaking a nine-month downtrend. At first glance, you might conclude that Iraq is now at the start of the same CPI uptrend that its neighbors, and indeed much of the developing […]
The formation of a new Iraqi government will undoubtedly be good for stock market sentiment, as such events generally are. And indeed the market has pretty obviously turned around already, with volumes increasing and the Rabee Securities index up about 6% since bottoming in early October. But skeptics may still argue that investors have no […]
The Head of Tehran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, Yahya Al-Ishaq, said Iran regards Iraq as one of the major investment locations in the Middle East region, the local satellite Press TV reported on Monday. Iraq's market and economic relations with Iran is a great opportunity for Tehran, and any failure to grasp this […]
National Alliance MP Hadi Al Amiri is holding the media responsible for creating tension over the government formation talks. I think that Iraq's politicians managed that well enough without us. The distrust continues, with Ayad Allawi, former prime minister, whose Iraqiya bloc won the most votes in the March elections now saying that the result […]
Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Barham Salih, visited major investment projects that are underway in Sulaymaniyah, the most populous city in the region. At a foundation stone-laying ceremony for Majidi Mall, a major retail building project, prime minister Salih said that direct investment in the Kurdistan Region has surpassed US$13bn. Investment won't stop there: […]
Committees don't just sit around in Iraq. On 19th October the Iraqi government created a committee to increase business and economic relations with Turkey. Now, a member of the committee has said that the two countries are going to increase commercial exchange up to $12bn in 2011, reports AKNews. This is a more than three-fold increase on previous […]
