Iraq

On the back of our upwardly revised oil price forecasts, we now see the Iraqi government turning out much smaller fiscal deficits over the next three years.

Plans to hold a referendum on the US-Iraqi security pact have been put on hold for the time being. While the security pact states that all American troops must be withdrawn from Iraq... 2009-10-23

Parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2010 will be a major milestone for post-Saddam Iraq, and in the lead up to the polls, relatively low levels of violence as well as recent... 2009-10-22

Despite warnings from Baghdad that it might not be able to meet IMF conditions for a new US$5.5bn financing arrangement, we still expect a deal to be struck between the two parties... 2009-10-08

Iraq's core inflation rate picked up in August, driven by rising food prices (in Iraq, core inflation includes food), but now the holy month of Ramadan has passed, price pressures... 2009-09-21

BMI View: Recent events in Yemen threaten not only the stability of the country, but that of the wider Middle East, and will be a headache to US President Barack Obama, with more... 2009-09-02

Political manoeuvring ahead of national parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2010 is well underway, and it appears that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's position beyond those... 2009-08-26

Despite our gloomy outlook for the global economy - we see global growth coming in at -2.5% in 2009, with only a modest recovery in 2010 - Iraq is set to be quite an outlier. Indeed,... 2009-08-06

Despite the disappointment of Iraq's landmark oil bidding round at the end of June, we have hardly altered our growth forecasts: slow progress in oil sector expansion has always... 2009-08-05

Our outlook for the central government's finances has improved following the recent upward revision to our average oil price forecasts for 2009 and 2010, though we still forecast... 2009-08-05