Iraq Economy is Growing at a Rapid Rate

There’s plenty of bad news from Iraq but did you read the latest issue of Newsweek Magazine and the article by Silvia Spring “Iraq's Economy is Booming”? The subtitle is “In what might be called the mother of all surprises, Iraq's economy is growing strong, even booming in places.” The article Includes:

■ “there's good money to be made in Iraq”
■ “Iraqna, the leading mobile-phone company,…. posted revenues of $333 million in 2005. This year, it's on track to take in $520 million.”
■ “now 7.1 million mobile-phone subscribers in Iraq, up from just 1.4 million two years ago”
■ “Real estate is booming. Construction, retail and wholesale trade sectors are healthy, too, according to a report by Global Insight in London.”
■ “34,000 registered companies in Iraq, up from 8,000 three years ago”
■ “Global Insight puts GDP growth at 17 percent last year and projects 13 percent for 2006.”
“there's a vibrancy at the grass roots that is invisible in most international coverage of Iraq”
■ “Consider some less formal indicators. Perhaps the most pervasive is the horrendous Iraqi traffic jams. Roadside bombs account for fewer backups than the sheer number of secondhand cars that have crowded onto the nation's roads—five times as many in Baghdad as before the war.”
■ “Real-estate prices have risen several hundred percent, suggesting that Iraqis are more optimistic about the future than most Americans are.”