Erbil booms despite blasts

Iraqi Kurdistan was tense end-September with the announcement of somewhat contentious election results, and the staging of a rare terrorist attack. Inevitably, the overall effect was to dampen business confidence. However, are these mere pinpricks, or more ominous signs? Erbil doesn’t yet have that most accurate of all measures of business confidence, a sophisticated, broad-based, and large stock market. In most other places, it’s simple to gauge the state of the economy, just by looking at the bourse. Yet this will also be the case in Kurdistan next year with the announcement in October that NASDAQ is helping to set up a trading system for the Erbil Stock Exchange to start operating in June. Along with existing firms, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) plans to trade shares on the bourse of new joint ventures with private partners in agriculture, tourism and industry. Estimates in Kurdish investor circles are that trading