Iraq has been buffeted by ill-winds over the past 40 years. Wars, sanctions, terrorism and domestic conflict have threatened its stability and the well-being of its citizens. But by far the most serious long-term threat the country faces is from the potential economic impact and environmental devastation of climate change. According to the UN Environment Programme, Iraq is t
Read More
Economists who studied the reasons for the low per capita growth of GDP in developing countries that rely on revenues from abundant natural resources, (called ‘resource curse’), found it was actually caused not by high exchange rates, but by wrongly conceived economic policies over a long period of time. We will visit this point again at the end of the paper. Meanwhile, and unt
Read More
Summary Context Iraq, particularly the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I), has become host to a significant population of refugees after decades of regional and domestic conflict, compounded by the activities of the the group known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Syrian civil war, and political turbulence in countries l
Read More
These additional reflections are prompted the article of Dr. Amer Hirmis entitled “World Bank’s Assessment Is Flawed: Manufacturing Is Viable in Iraq… Preliminary Brief Comments!” (Hirmis, 2021), which provided critical assessment and comments and challenged some of the analyses and recommendations provided in a recent WBG document entitled “Breaking Out of Fragility A Country
Read More
The public sector in Iraq accounts for the majority of employment in the oil-rich country. Plummeting oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in economic crisis and an ever increasing budget deficit. Where there is crisis however, there is opportunity: will 2021 bring a much needed reform of the public sector in Iraq? When the Iraq anti-government protests erupted
Read More