Iraq is biggest-ever emerging market: deputy PM

[sabra]

Source: AFP

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - Iraq's deputy prime minister said on Monday that his country was the world's largest-ever emerging market, with foreign companies lining up to invest in the war-ravaged economy.

"Iraq is the largest ever emerging market that you can think of," Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh told journalists at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh.

"There is nothing in Iraq that doesn't require investment, but the state cannot solve it and so we look seriously to the private sector."

He said that Iraq was predicting 70 billion dollars oil revenue in 2008, with reserves that "could well exceed" 350 billion barrels, and the International Monetary Fund slating eight percent growth this year.

"It hasn't taken off yet, but when it does take off, it will be very fast," Saleh said of the ravaged economy.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080519/wl_mideast_afp/iraqeconomyoilinvestmentwef_080519140443