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. […]
Izumi Kobayashi, Executive Vice President of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) -- the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group -- will visit Iraq, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza in early November. During her visit, she will discuss opportunities for private sector investment and raise awareness of how MIGA's investment […]
The World Bank says it expects Iraq's gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 12.6 percent in 2012, and 10.2 percent in 2013, following a growth of 9.6 percent last year. If achieved, this would give a compound growth of 36 percent in just three years. This follows a downward revision of growth expectations for […]
The World Bank’s investment arm plans to pump about $800 million into Iraq’s energy and banking industries over the next three years to help boost development in the private sector, a senior official said on Wednesday. Reuters reports that Rashad Kaldany, vice president of the International Finance Corporation, said between $300 million and $500 million […]
A new World Bank report released today, Republic of Iraq Financial Sector Review, highlights that while reforms are ongoing in the financial sector, the country needs to push further to ensure that a system still characterized by state-domination and lack of transparency reaches its full potential. The report stresses the critical importance of the financial […]
Reuters reports that it's a tough road ahead for Iraqi private banks required to raise their capital to boost business as they battle against decades of state dominance to win a slice of the asset base from government-run enterprises. It blames a poor credit culture, the lack of a modern banking system, and the dominance […]
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is supporting economic growth and expanded access to telecommunications services in Iraq through a landmark $400 million, seven-year debt facility for Zain Iraq, the country’s largest mobile phone operator. Zain Iraq is a subsidiary of Kuwait-based telecommunications operator Zain Group, a longtime IFC partner. Zain is the […]
Aswat al-Iraq reports that projects financed by a US$90 million credit line from the World Bank have been implemented in Iraq. The projects include the construction of several roads in southern Iraq’s Wassit and Najaf Provinces, construction and rehabilitation of 10 main roads and 4 bridges in western Iraq’s Babel and southern Iraq’s Muthanna provinces. […]
As Iraq's politicians continue to haggle over the formation of the next government, the World Bank has issued its latest Doing Business 2011 report, and the incoming administration would do well to read it. Consider the following: Out of 183 countries monitored, Iraq ranks 166th, behind even Haiti and Zimbabwe; No business regulation reforms have […]
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group, today underscored its commitment to supporting investment into Iraq with an announcement of its first contract of guarantee for the country. The guarantee of $5 million backs a Turkish investment into a Baghdad plant that manufactures polyethylene terephthalate (PET) […]
A second tranche of a World Bank loan to Iraq, amounting to $741 million [890 billion Iraqi dinars], will be allocated for the improvement of the country’s electricity sector, an Iraqi academician and economist said on Sunday. “The agreement between Iraq and the World Bank offered Iraq a $3.6-billion credit, the first tranche of which […]
According to a report from AK News, the Iraqi government is planning to borrow $5 billion from the World Bank to fund its 2010 general budget deficit, Iraq’s acting Finance Minister said Wednesday. Iraq’s budget for 2010 is suffering a deficit of IQD23 trillion Iraqi dinars [approx $19bn] which the government is planning to narrow […]
