Economy of Iraq
Large offshore oil terminals Al Bakr and Khor el Amaya (Al Amik) with a design capacity of 1.6 million barrels. per day, located in the region of the oil export port of Fao, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, serve the export of oil through the southern borders. The main oil pipelines of Iraq: the main “strategic” oil pipeline El Hadit – Er Rumaila (length – 665 km, throughput – 44 million tons / year in the north direction and 50 million tons / year – in the south) allows you to export oil both through southern ports, and through the ports of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon using the Kirkuk-Keyhan port (Turkey), El-Hadita-Banias (Syria) and El-Hadita-Tripoli (Lebanon) oil pipelines. The Baghdad-Basra oil product pipeline has a length of 545 km (designed to pump 1.5 million tons per year of oil products to the regions of the center and south of the country).
The total length of railways with a gauge of 1435 mm was in con. 1990s OK. 2500 km. The Iraqi railway network consists mainly of three lines: Baghdad-Kirkuk-Erbil; Baghdad-Mosul-Yarubiya (Tell Kochek), which connects Iraq with the Turkish and Syrian railway system and has access to European railways; Baghda-Basra-Umm Qasr. In 2000, traffic was resumed along the Mosul-Aleppo line.
The length of all highways in the country amounted to con. 1990s St. 45 thousand km. Roads are laid mainly in the meridian direction. The best roads lead from Baghdad to the borders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iran. Main highways: Baghdad Diwaniya-Basra; Baghdad-Kut-Amara-Basra; Basra-Umm-Qasr; Basra-Safwan (to the border with Kuwait); Baghdad-Mosul-Tell Kochek – border with Syria; Baghdad-Mosul-Zakho – border with Turkey: Baghdad_Khanekin and Baghdad-Kirkuk-Erbil-Ravanduz – border with Iran. After the imposition of sanctions, the “road of life” was called the Baghdad-Ramadi-Rutba highway – the border with Jordan. It was through Amman and this highway that goods from abroad arrived in Iraq, mainly from Europe, America, the Russian Federation due to the closure of Iraqi airports after the start of sanctions.
The country has four international airports – in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Samawa.
After 1991, Iraq established direct telephone and telex communications with other countries using the Intersat and Arabsat satellite communication systems. All R. 1990s 4% of the country’s inhabitants were provided with telephone communications (55 automatic telephone exchanges) (in 1989 – 6.5%).
To the beginning 2003 The Central Bank of Iraq acted on behalf of the state by issuing currency, exercising banking control and managing the currency. The main commercial bank – Rafidain Bank, founded in 1941, the largest in the Arab East in terms of deposits and total assets, acted in the interests of the state, performing those functions that the central bank does not perform. It had 228 branches in Iraq and 10 branches abroad. In 1988, the Rashid Bank was formed to compete with the Rafidain Bank. In 1991, during the liberalization of the banking sector, 4 new banks were formed: Al-Ittimad, Baghdad, Iraqi Commercial and Private Banks. There were 4 state specialized banks: agricultural cooperation (founded in 1936, 47 branches) for medium and long-term lending to agriculture; industrial (founded in 1940, 8 branches) — lending to public and private industrial companies; a real estate bank (founded in 1949, 27 branches) to issue loans for housing construction and conventional construction; socialist (1991) – the issuance of interest-free loans to civil servants and veterans of the war with Iran. The stock exchange was opened in Baghdad in March 1992 in connection with the government’s plans to privatize state-owned enterprises.
The structure of Iraq’s external debt (creditors and the amount of debt in billions of US dollars): Russian Federation – 8.0; France – 8.0; Paris Club (without the participation of the Russian Federation and France) – 9.5; Central Europe – 4.0; Persian Gulf countries – 55; commercial creditors – 4.8; international institutions – 1.1; others (indefinite) – 26.1. Total – 116.5 billion dollars.
Population of Iraq
Iraqi population dynamics (million people): 1957 (census) – 6.299, 1965 – 8.047, 1977 – 12.0, 1987 – 16.335, 1995 (estimate) – 20.1, 2003 (estimate) – approx. 25.0. According to Countryaah, the decline in population growth in 1987–2000 is explained by the 1980–88 war between Iraq and Iran, Iraq’s war against multinational forces in 1991, and the introduction by the UN Security Council in August 1990 of economic sanctions against Iraq, which were in effect until May 2003, which caused a drop in the birth rate, an increase in the death rate of the population and a huge wave of emigration from the country. The number of emigrants from Iraq as of 2000 is estimated at 2-4 million people.
Birth rate in 1973-75 42.6‰; according to UN estimates, in 1990-95 38.4‰, in 1995-2000 – 36.4‰.
Mortality, according to UN estimates, was 10.4‰ in 1990–95, and 8.5‰ in 1995–2000. Child mortality (under the age of 1 year) in 1973-75 88.7 people. per 1000 newborns; according to UN estimates, in 1990-95 – 127, in 1995-2000 – 95.
Age structure of the population: 0-14 years old – 45.2%; 15-59 years old – 49.7%; 60 years and older – 5.1% (1987). Men 51.3%, women 48.7% (1994 est.).
The number of urban population and its share in the total population of the country (million people,%): 1970 (estimate) – 5.452 (57.8), 1977 – 7.646 (63.7), 1987 – 11.469 (70.2), 1994 (estimate) – 14.308 (71.5), 2000 (estimate) – 17.325 (75).
The proportion of illiterates among the population over the age of 9 is 27.4% (1987). The proportion of children and young people (aged 6 to 23) studying in educational institutions decreased in 1980–98 from 67 percent to 50 percent.
The published results of the population censuses in 1965, 1977 and 1987 do not contain information about its ethnic composition. According to estimates, in the total population: Arabs – 76-77%, Kurds – 18-20%, Turkomans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians (Iranians), Armenians, Turks, Jews, etc. Languages: Arabic (Iraqi dialect, in which speaks most of the Arabs of Iraq, has been formed since the 7th century from the living speech of the Arabs under the influence of elements of the Aramaic, Persian and Turkish languages); Kurdish (Kurmanji and Sorani dialects).
