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Doing Business In Iraq: On Track To Wider Economic Reform

A few months into his term Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi laid out his vision for reforms in front of global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos. By the summer of 2015 his political reforms had grabbed all the headlines, overshadowing the reforms he was bringing to the military and economy. But as the fight against […]

Hassan Hadad writes for 1001 Iraqi Thoughts:

A few months into his term Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi laid out his vision for reforms in front of global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos. By the summer of 2015 his political reforms had grabbed all the headlines, overshadowing the reforms he was bringing to the military and economy. But as the fight against Da’ish draws down, the focus has turned back to the economy.

On October 31st the World Bank published its Doing Business 2018 report, an annual report “measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it” and ranks “the ease of doing business” across 190 countries.

On the surface, the latest report is no different for Iraq than the previous Doing Business reports. A closer look, however, shows a different story. For example, out of ten indicators that make up an economy’s overall score, Iraq improved on six indicators from 2017.