Iraqi Finance & Markets

I'd like to thank the angry troll who sparked an update to an October 2003 post about the proposed Baghdad Stock Exchange.

Iraqi stock exchange bets on future success over 500 million shares traded on new bourse's 1st day

BAGHDAD: Iraq has a new stock exchange, launched without fanfare and staffed almost entirely by women, which aims to become the leading bourse in the Middle East.

Iraq is far from the backward, helpless country the American media and left like to portray. Contrary to Kerry's spin that Iraqi's cannot reconstitute their economy without France's participation or his stewardship, the Iraqi's are getting their act together much faster than the Europeans did after WWII, and they're doing so while fighting remnants of the former regime.

Iraq to auction treasury bills on July 18

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Iraq's finance ministry will auction 150 billion dinars of treasury bills on July 18, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
The FT said the T-bill issue would be used to repay outstanding debt issued by Saddam Hussein's regime. On June 17, Iraq's central bank governor Sinan al-Shabibi said an Iraqi dinar treasury bill issue was imminent and the proceeds would be used to finance state obligations.

On Wednesday, Iraq's finance minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, said Iraq had hired international consultants to help assess financial claims on the country from the Saddam Hussein era.

U.S. accountants Ernst and Young and lawyers Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton will help the ministry verify debt claims estimated at around $120 billion, he said.