Iraq's Consumer Goods Boom Continues

Jan. 24, 2005 -- -- When it comes to consumer goods, this is a good-news area that simply continues to improve.

Markets in almost every place we visited were busy and bustling. Despite the limitations on road commerce and people's ability to move around, there is no question that the average Iraqi today has a range of choice that was almost unimaginable two years ago.

All types of cheap consumer electronics -- from refrigerators to CD players -- are flowing over Iraq's porous borders, especially from Syria, Iran and Turkey. Sources on the ground report very little demand for cultural items such as books, but unbelievably voracious consumption of Western products such as satellite dishes.

The number of telephone subscribers has nearly tripled since March 2003 -- to more than 2 million nationwide -- and this figure does not include cell phones, which any visitor notices instantly in the major cities.

The number of Internet subscribers -- 11,000 before the war -- was at 110,000 in November. This does not include the new and frenetic activity in Internet cafés.

One must temper all this, of course, with the knowledge that a great many Iraqis cannot afford the goods they see cropping up all around them.