Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Il The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised the latest political and economic progress in Iraq and says it predicts a 7% growth in 2008 and next year. For his part the UN secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has welcomed data on the fall in attacks across the country, while hoping that the same will come to pass in the political arena.
Mohsin Khan, the IMF's director for the Middle East, said that the international organisation expected Iraq's GDP to rise significantly, mainly because of high oil prices and increased production, which this year should reach the total to 2.2 million barrels produced each day.
This growth is the result of an effective improvement in security across the board and as a result increased investment in the oil industry. Khan speaks of “impressive” progress in economic reforms: including the strengthening of the central bank, the restructuring of two large public banks and a sharp curb on inflation, which had jumped to 65 % in 2006.
But Iraq, underlines Khan, “still will continue to need aid, particularly in the security area,”. Ban Ki-moon in his report ahead of the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s January 15th visit to Bagdad, underlined increased security, but also the necessity to reach “greater political progress”, which so many have long been waiting for.
