Iraqi shopkeeper Mahmoud Ghali of Sadr City remembers when things were bad in spring 2006. “There was one month when all I sold was three bars of soap and one bottle of shampoo.” Now things have changed for the better. Last month Ghali sold nineteen bars of soap, ten bottles of shampoo, and also enjoyed a rare towel purchase, increasing his year-over-year sales that month by eight-fold. That’s the kind of growth that China doesn’t have today. The increase in sales enabled Ghali to pay his five employees a small salary for the month (they have often gone without) and they celebrated their good fortune with a noon snack of a chick-pea each Ghali provided from his food rations. After years of difficulties the Iraq economy is booming. The New York Times yesterday trumpeted news of the increase in Iraqi oil revenue spending for reconstruction, money key to priming the economy and increasing prosperity. When Bush Administration economists look at Iraqi growth today they get excited about people like Mahmoud Ghali, who is contemplating purchasing an extra bar of soap from his supplier this month. “The soap does not go bad with time,” Ghali mused, “and if I sell one more bar of soap perhaps I can get a bit more food for my family.” It may be just a bar of soap and a chick-pea to Ghali, but he provides one more bright, shining example of Iraq’s dramatic economic expansion.
[Warning to the irony impaired - you’ve just experienced it.]
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