Reaching beyond Iraq

by Riad Al-Khouri January 14, 2013

written by Riad Al-Khouri January 14, 2013

In a region marred by old conflicts and new social unrest, semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan seems to be sitting rather pretty. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is clocking strong growth in gross domestic product per capita (now well over $5,000) in an atmosphere of relative stability. Kurdish opposition protests against the KRG, which were attracting global attention between 2009 and 2011, seem to have been declining just as much as the economy has been rising. Today, watching the massive new construction projects under way and the global airlines plotting new routes to town, it does not require a PhD in macroeconomics to see that the provincial capital of Erbil is in a boom cycle. The prosperity, of course, is oil-led: Kurdistan now produces 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, set to rise to 200,000 bpd in 2013 and 1 million bpd by 2015. This serious growth of wealth is set

Riad Al-Khouri

Riad al Khouri is an economist specializing in the Middle East and North Africa region. He has undertaken extensive research on regional trade and political economy, among other topics, and writes widely about development issues. He taught economics at the American University in Beirut (AUB) and Beirut University College (now the Lebanese American University) and worked as a consultant for the European Commission, ESCWA, GTZ, ILO, IOM, OPEC Fund, UNDP, UNIDO, USAID, and the World Bank, among many other public sector organizations, as well as for numerous private firms.

Reaching beyond Iraq

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