Iraq's Economy Looking Up for a Change
The IMF predicts good news for Iraq's economy, and Baghdadis are optimistic.
BAGHDAD, Jan. 19, 2008— -- Iraqis received a rare piece of good news this week, when the International Monetary Fund predicted that the country would see an overall growth rate of 7 percent in the coming year.
The country will benefit from oil prices reaching record highs and the forecast that Iraq's own oil production would go up by 200,000 barrels a day, to a daily output of 2.2 million barrels, the IMF predicted.
Watch for Hilary Brown's report on an upcoming edition of "World News."
The optimism is visible everywhere on the streets of Baghdad. The shops are full of produce and electronics and clothes and dry goods. People are out with their families, and they have a little money to spend.
"There's a big difference from last year," says Ali Shayal, who owns a men's clothing store in the up-market district of Corrada. "There's much more demand now from our customers."
Nearby Shayal's clothing store is the Mish-Misha juice bar, full of fresh fruit, equipped with high-speed blenders kept spanking clean, and doing a roaring trade. It's a family business that has expanded to three branches in Baghdad this year. The dream of the owners is to turn it into a chain all across Iraq.
"When it's safe outside, business is better," owner Ahmed Salah said with a smile.
As Salah suggests, security is the key to the brighter economic forecast here. Since June, violent attacks in the country have dropped 60 percent, according to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. This is the big dividend of the so-called "surge" of U.S. troops last spring -- 30,000 reinforcements deployed primarily on the streets of the capital.
American troops are now working closely with teams of disaffected former Sunni insurgents they call CLCs or Concerned Local Citizens, who are paid $300 a month to patrol their neighborhoods and tip off their new U.S. friends when they see something suspicious. The plan is eventually to train the CLCs for non-military jobs in mainstream civilian life.
One of the best measures of Iraq's economic performance may be the Baghdad Stock Exchange, a small, crowded room inside a heavily guarded three-story office block that looks like an off-track betting shop.
