Iraq is located in Asia at the North-east of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Turkey in the North, Iran in the East, Kuwait in the South, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in the South-west, and Syria in the North-west. The Arabian Gulf lies in the South of the country. The terrain is made up mostly of broad plains and reedy marshes in the South-eastern part of the country. About one fifth of the land is arable and there are few permanent crops. The climate is mostly desert with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers. The Northernmost regions along the mountainous Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters with heavy snow.

Iraq has remarkable resources of oil, natural gas, phosphates and sulphur with an economy heavily dependent on exports of crude oil and petrochemicals. It has the second largest oil reserves in the world and had become the second largest exporter of hydrocarbons prior to the Gulf War. Manufacturing plays a relatively smaller role in the economy. All large-scale industry is publicly owned and includes iron, steel, cement, pharmaceuticals and fertilisers production. Small private industrial companies are engaged in food processing and textiles. Iraq has a skilled workforce. Most of the fertile irrigated land is available for agriculture and 30 percent of the workforce is employed in this sector.

GDP at Current Market Prices:	26724.14 million US$ (2004)
Per Capita GDP:	943.56 US$ (2004)
Share of Sectors in GDP:	12.09% Agriculture, 13.0% Industry, 81.0% Services, (2003)
Total Exports:	1822.18 million US$ (2003)
Total Imports:	- million US$ (2004)
Major Exports Items:	Crude oil
Major Imports Items:	Foodstuffs, medicine and manufactured goods
Major Trading Partners:	US, Jordan, France, China and Taiwan

Ministry of Oil

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Trade

Central Bank of Iraq