Good news can come out now, elections are over!
Excerpts from MSNBC,
(more...)...Iraq’s economy is growing strong, even booming in places.
...Civil war or not, Iraq has an economy, and—mother of all surprises—it’s doing remarkably well.
...The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports 34,000 registered companies in Iraq, up from 8,000 three years ago.
...Even so, there’s a vibrancy at the grass roots that is invisible in most international coverage of Iraq. Partly it’s the trickle-down effect. However it’s spent, whether on security or something else, money circulates. Nor are ordinary Iraqis themselves short on cash. After so many years of living under sanctions, with little to consume, many built up considerable nest eggs—which they are now spending.
...mported goods have grown increasingly affordable, thanks to the elimination of tariffs and trade barriers. Salaries have gone up more than 100 percent since the fall of Saddam, and income-tax cuts (from 45 percent to just 15 percent) have put more cash in Iraqi pockets.
“The U.S. wanted to create the conditions in which small-scale private enterprise could blossom,” says Jan Randolph, head of sovereign risk at Global Insight. “In a sense, they’ve succeeded.”
...Real-estate prices have risen several hundred percent, suggesting that Iraqis are more optimistic about the future than most Americans are.
...There’s even a positive spin to be put on corruption. Money stolen from government coffers or siphoned from U.S. aid projects does not just disappear. Again, says Farid Abolfathi, a Global Insight analyst, it’s the “trickledown” effect.
Such “underground activity” is the most dynamic part of Iraq’s economy, he says. “It might not be viewed as respectable. But in reality, that’s what puts money in the hands of the little people.”...The withdrawal of a certain great power could drastically reduce the foreign money flow, and knock the crippled economy flat.
