Iraq

In a positive development as far as Iraq's reconstruction and development is concerned, Jalal Talabani and Lee Myung-Bak, the respective presidents of Iraq and South Korea, signed... 2009-02-24

The convincing victory for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition in January's provincial elections is attributable to his government's negotiation of the US-Iraq... 2009-02-17

The outlook for the global economy is increasingly dismal. As such, we have recently revised down our global growth forecast to -0.8%, though risks remain to the downside. Against... 2009-02-17

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,... 2009-02-17

We expect the Iraqi dinar to appreciate by 3.0% in 2009 as the Central Bank of Iraq continues to use exchange rate policy as its principal anti-inflationary tool.

Real GDP will grow by an average 6.3% annually over the next five years, on the back of increasing oil output and strong growth in the non-oil sector.

Lower export revenues from crude oil will send Iraq's current account balance into deficit in 2009, albeit only by US$1.1bn (1.5% of GDP), before it returns to surplus the following... 2009-02-10

On January 31, provincial elections that were held in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces attracted a turnout of just over half (51%) of eligible voters. Although preliminary results are not... 2009-02-02

The Pentagon's latest quarterly progress report to the US Congress, published in mid-January, states that inadequate supplies of food, water, electricity and healthcare have replaced... 2009-01-30

The Central Bank of Iraq cut its policy interest rate by 100bps in early January, from 15.0% to 14.0%. In light of our expectations for relatively subdued inflationary pressures this... 2009-01-30