According to one senior official of the central bank, in the next three years the GDP or gross domestic product of Iraq is to grow at an average of 10% every year for the next three years and that will be the result of increased amount of oil revenues.
This OPEC member has the fourth largest oil reserve in the world and it is now producing more than 3 million bpd everyday and it is looking forward to double the amount of oil production in the coming years.
According to a statement on Saturday, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organization the average export has increased to 2.565 million bpd in this august and this has been the highest average in the last three decades.
Deputy governor of the Central Bank Mudher Kasim, has opined that that, if the oil sector would not have been there, the GDP would never be more than 4.5%, but thankfully oil makes 60% of the whole economy.
He has also added that the oil has the capacity of adding a lot of money and to the GDP as well. With the rise of 100,000 bpd in the oil export adds about $3.4 billion per year.
Though the oil sectors pulls up to 95% of the government revenue, but is affected by the old infrastructure.
According to Kasim’s statement, he hopes that the rise in the GDP will cross 10% after the coming three years and it will happen if other industries can gather more investment.
Kasim has also added that, if the price of oil remains at the present level and so does the amount of export, then according to the calculation and anticipation of the Central Bank, the federal reserve of Iraq will grow from $75 billion from $67 billion by the year 2013.
The price of oil has become rather steady and Brent October futures are up for 17 cents from the $114.74 per barrel and after jumping about $2 on Friday in the US futures of crude oil.
Kasim has further added that it is his expectation that the core rate of inflation will remain within the single digit and 6% in 2012. The average amount of inflation in the years 2010 and 2011 was 6.5%.
Source [Al Arabiya]