Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

An official source said that the Iraqi Navy signed an agreement with U.S. and Italian ship building companies to build two ships and 15 boats that will be used to protect Iraqi ports from oil smugglers and to control incoming and outgoing shipments.

Hmmmmm... pretty hefty purchases/contracts for an economy that lacks funds. I wonder if they know something we don't. (another's comments. Not mine. But Intruging)

Iraqi Navy signs agreement with U.S., Italian companies

Neno.. i can't get this link to open.. says error?
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl...-8/news19.html

Thanks for posting the info. tho... great news!!!

This is a GREAT sign, lets hope they can agree.
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Hardline Sunni cleric willing to meet - Yahoo! News

By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 3 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - A prominent hardline Iraqi Sunni cleric said Friday he was willing to meet with top Shiite religious leaders to end sectarian violence and help move
Iraq out of its internal crisis.
ADVERTISEMENT

"We are ready to meet anybody who is sincere, and desires good things for Iraq and for Iraqis, in particular the supreme religious leadership in Iraq," Harith al-Dhari, leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said on Al-Jazeera television.

By supreme religious leadership, al-Dhari was apparently referring to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most prominent Shiite cleric.

Al-Dhari, who spoke from Amman, Jordan, blamed the U.S. military presence for contributing to insecurity and worsening tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. Violence between the two Muslim communities surged after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Al-Dhari also blamed the crisis on "several" unidentified parties "working under the umbrella of the occupation to sabotage and destroy, driven by internal and external agendas."

Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq described al-Dhari's comments as "a great initiative" and expressed hope that Shiite religious leaders would respond.

"Making concessions today is better than being stubborn and watching the country go down the drain," al-Mutlaq told The Associated Press by telephone from Amman.

"We said before that everybody should make concessions," he added. "I believe that this initiative deserves to be considered and accepted by the other party. This compromise is also a sacrifice. Iraqis and Iraq need to stop the bloodshed."
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Arco

Published: August 25, 2006
BAGHDAD For Mehdi Dawood, Iraq's failures have leeched into the cucumbers. A few months ago, he paid about $1.70 for a week's worth of the seedy staple. Prices have since doubled, so if he shopped like he used to, cucumbers would devour a fifth of his monthly pension.

It's not just the vegetables. Fuel and electricity prices are up more than 270 percent over last year, according to Iraqi government figures. Tea in some markets has quadrupled, egg prices have doubled, and all over the country, the daily routine now includes a new question: What can be done without?

"Meat, I just don't buy it anymore," said Dawood, 66, holding half filled bags at a market in Baghdad. "It's too expensive."

"We are all suffering," he said. "It's the government's fault. There is no security, there is no stability."

Even as violence rages here, disgust is rising like bile among Iraqis who cite a failing economy as their most pressing concern. Three months into the administration of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the inflation rate has reached 70 percent, up from 32 percent last year.

Wages meanwhile are flat, banks are barely functioning and the consensus among many U.S. and Iraqi officials is that inflation will likely accelerate.

The causes, nearly all agree, are numerous. Violence, corruption and the fallout from decades of state control are kicking up the price of nearly everything, especially fuel, which in turn multiplies the production cost for goods already on the rise.

"It's a very serious problem," said Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "You don't have stable trucking, you don't have stable distribution. You have a constant protection racket with security forces who are involved in sectarian fighting often taking bribes to have things operate. All of that builds up pressure on prices."

Maliki's office has responded with proposals to spur foreign investment and calls for public patience, even forgiveness. But billions in American aid have been spent on Iraq with limited impact. Unlike the security situation, which can be addressed by deploying more troops to the streets, economies are mercurial, especially in a country where buying and selling typically occur beyond the reach of government policy.

Fuel remains Iraq's most visible example of economic dysfunction. A gallon of gasoline cost as little as 4 cents in November 2005; now, after the International Monetary Fund pushed the Oil Ministry to cut its subsidies, the official price is about 67 cents.

The spike has come as a shock to Iraqis, who make only about $150 a month on average, if they even have a job. Estimates of unemployment range from 40 to 60 percent. With black-market sellers commanding $3.19 a gallon because of shortages, up from about $1.25 a few months ago, the actual price most Iraqis pay is far higher than what is officially sanctioned. Filling up now requires several days' pay, monastic patience or both.

Three years after fuel shortages led to riots in Basra, tension is often palpable at the pumps. Gas lines stretch as far as the eye can see, and at least two shootings have been reported in Baghdad this month alone. Near a station in the city center this week, bribes and line cutting appeared to be the norm. At one point, a Mercedes and several police vehicles cut ahead of at least 50 cars while a policeman watched.

The station's manager said the drivers given special treatment must have had a note showing they were doctors, or attending a funeral. By a beat-up station wagon, Abdul Rehman Qasim had a different theory: The drivers avoiding the wait possessed either money or power. He had neither.

"I'm a poor guy," he said. "So I leave some of my children here. They spend the night in the car."

"Under the government of Maliki, things are getting worse and worse," he added. "Only God can save us."

In Iraq's once-bustling markets, frustration is equally acute. Car bombers have regularly targeted commercial districts, and prices seem to be up at every stall. In one of city's oldest markets, in a middle-class Shiite area near downtown, chick peas have doubled in price. Lamb now runs as high as $2.75 a pound, up from $1.50.

Prices for cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, have all jumped too, while the price of the propane gas cylinders most families use for cooking have quintupled to more than $15 each.

"We live hand to mouth," said Dawood, a retired clerk for Pepsi.

Veiled women shopping nearby agreed. "We're tired and the situation is horrible," said Zakiya Abid Salman, 55, a widow carrying eggplants. "There are no jobs and the prices are always rising."

Merchants said they had no choice but to increase what they charge because of the increased cost of doing business. Still, they said, their incomes declined. Ali Fouad, 27, pushing live fish around a shallow tub of water, said the price of transporting his product from farms south of Baghdad has nearly tripled since last year. A few months ago, he sold about 49 kilograms, or 110 pounds, of fish a day, earning roughly $50 after expenses. Since he had to raise prices about 60 percent, he said he sells fewer fish and earns only $20 a day.

"What's our life today?" he asked. "We are working only for gas, ice and electricity. There are no savings."

From Basra in the south to the rural areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, considered the most stable part of the country, rampant inflation is stirring discontent. Kurds regularly complain that the prices on virtually all the basic needs of life have shot up in the past year. Salaries have not kept pace.

"Inflation now is very bad," said Lieutenant Ismail Ibrahim Said, a police officer in Qaradagh, a town in Kurdistan. "The salary we get is nothing for us. It's only $220 a month. If a child gets sick, we can't take him to a clinic for treatment. We can't buy new clothes. The salary is enough only for food."

Stanching inflation will be not be easy. Experts here say they struggle just to collect the data necessary to diagnose the problem, while Iraq largely lacks the usual economic mechanisms for controlling prices.

The Central Bank of Iraq is only 3 years old. Though the International Monetary Fund reports that officials have raised interest rates to reduce liquidity - and accelerated efforts to create a functioning free market - its most recent study in July also concluded that "the banking system is largely inert." As a result, the report said, the effectiveness of such proposals would be "very limited."

Ali al-Dabagh, a spokesman for the prime minister, said in an interview that "the government is working hard to find solutions." He blamed terrorists for undermining Iraq's democratically elected leaders, but he acknowledged that the country "needs an administrative revolution."

For the families trying to survive, time sometimes seems to be running out. Fathi Khalid, 43, a vegetable seller with a mostly empty stall except for a few dozen cucumbers, said that obstacles seem to multiply by the day. Sometimes roads are blocked so harvests never arrive. Sometimes he cannot afford to pay the right bribes. Week after week, his customers purchase less and less. "Most people buy half what they used to," he said. "The vegetables sit here and rot."

Iraqi battlefront: Prices - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

So read my last news and just thinking what this population need right now?

Yes we know it needs a decent revaluation of the Dinar.

Originally Posted by bob1940

Yes we know it needs a decent revaluation of the Dinar.

Yes BOB we are like parrot me include LOL its time to move forward and just wait this happens.No reason to wait more for this governement.

Originally Posted by ezcash

Neno.. i can't get this link to open.. says error?
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl...-8/news19.html

Thanks for posting the info. tho... great news!!!

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Neno ... that's much better.. just one small problem.... :)

Originally Posted by ezcash

Neno ... that's much better.. just one small problem.... :)

World Bank to open an office in Baghdad - Investor's Iraq Forum