Iraq: annual inflation down 0.8%, slums host 13% of population
Federal police officers patrol at A Nabey Yunes market in the city of Mosul, Iraq, March 19, 2017. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s annual inflation rate declined by 0.8% percent in February compared to the same month of last year, according to the Iraqi Planning Ministry.
Planning Minister Abdul-Zahra al-Hindawi said in a statement that monthly inflation also dropped in February by 0.3%, compared to the preceding month.
According to the minister, the statistics were prepared based on commodity prices data collected from a select sample of consumer outlets across Iraqi provinces.
He attributed the decline to a drop in food and beverage prices.
In a separate statistic, Hindawi was quoted saying that 3.300 million Iraqis live in slums, a number, which he said, accounts for 13 percent of the population.
Hindawi cited a recent survey run by his ministry, which, he said, revealed that Iraq hosts 3700 slums. He explained, however, that the survey did not include the provinces of Nineveh, Salahuddin and Anbar, saying it “was conducted under circumstances that made it difficult to include those regions”.
He said Baghdad comes on top of Iraqi cities in terms of the number of slums with 1000 areas, followed by Basra with 700 spots.
He noted that, as part of government efforts to resolve the issue, Chinese firms had been approached to set up fast-processed, low-cost housings.