Written question asked by Michael Moore (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 14 November 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 November 2007. It was answered by Shahid Malik (Labour) on Thursday, 22 November 2007 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Iraq: Economic Situation

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his estimate is of (a) economic growth, (b) employment levels and (c) average wages in Iraq; what such figures were in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Answer

The most recent statistics that we have seen on the Iraqi economy are as follows:

	Economic growth (Percentage)	Employment levels (Percentage)	Hourly wages (Iraqi Dinar)
2003	-41.5	28	n/a
2004	46.5	18.4	833
2005	3.7	n/a	n/a
2006	3	n/a	n/a
n/a = Not available.
Sources:
World Bank.
UNDP.
World Food Programme (WFP).
Central Office of Statistics and Information Technology (Government of Iraq).

Secondary information