Posted on 01/19/2008 12:48:54 PM PST by 1rudeboy
IMF Predicts Good News for Iraq's Economy, but Growth Depends on Security
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.
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 . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Iraq is a quagmire!
WE lost, remember?
Thanks for posting this ! :-)
Wow. Even ABC reporting this. Hard to believe.
“Trade not Aid”
But as always, security must come first.
"There's a big difference from last year," says Ali Shayal...
"When it's safe outside, business is better," owner Ahmed Salah said with a smile.
Shout it from the rooftops.
ABC reporting this? In an election year??
Well, knock me over with a feather.
Ping to continuing progress.
The right wing of America has made the Iraqi economy into a viable and growing effort.
Meanwhile, the American left is working as hard as it can to destroy the ecomomy in hopes of having an election issue.
Excellent.
So when will they start paying their own way?
Don’t know. Why don’t you ask them.
Living up to your screenname I see.
Sorry to be so blunt . . . your question may be honest enough, but it sounds too much like one you'd expect to hear from the Ron Paul/Hamas camp.
I am curious to find out where all that oil money is going. I suspect there is a lot of greed and graft in the process.
Wow!! First ABC told us that we'd forgotten about the war in Afghanistan when really THEY were the ones who forgot about it, not us; now they call this a 'rare' bit of good news? They need to contact SandRat and ask him to forward his Free Republic War News to their news department everyday. I'm sure he'd do it. I know it's too much for those reporters to seek out the good news, when it's the bad news that fits their anti-American, anti-Troop agendas. You'd help 'em out, wouldn't ya Sandy?
It should read: "Americans received a rare piece of good news this week,...owing to the fact that ABC slipped up in its relentless campaign to suppress good news from Iraq."
They have.
A lot of it currently through FMS.
A lot of it in direct invitation purchases.
Detailed information on this is available for public consumption at various sources.
Would it be illegal for Iraq to give all our military personnel, who served in their country, a $10k or $20k "bonus"? As a thank you? Maybe, more for our wounded and even more for the families who have lost loved ones?
The sad part is that the News I put up on FRWN is sent directly from the DoD & various Military sites directly when it is released to all the print and broadcast media from those same sites. What does that tell you about the LameStream Media Urinalists?
It tells me exactly what I know — the Enemedia is in cahoots with those who wish to defeat our country — THEY ARE THE ENEMY. We would do well to remember that.
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