The imports in Iraq declined from US $50,446 million to only US $45,200 million. As reported by the Central Bank of Iraq, the country’s imports averaged US $22,700 million from 1988 to 2014. On the other hand it reached its highest peak amounting to US $50,500 million in 2013 and its lowest point occurred in 1994 at around US $ 2,700 million.

Iraq’s major import commodities are Cars ($1.6 B), Raw Iron Bars (around $1 B), Insulated Wire ($900M), Rice ($850 M) and Delivery Trucks ($800 M). In addition to these items, about 40% percent of Iraq’s main imports are machinery and transport equipment, manufactured articles at about 27%, 10% for mineral fuels and another 7% for chemicals and related products.

These commodities are imported primarily from Turkey ($12 B), China ($6.9 B), South Korea ($2 B), Italy ($1.7 B) and Germany ($1.7 B).

Chart Showing GDP Growth Compared to rest of world

The country holds the 44th rank as the largest export economy in the world. New contracts with international oil companies are also forecasted to increase Iraq’s oil exports about the usual level of around 1,900,000 bbl per day. The war with Iran which almost lasted for a decade brought long-term problems for Iraq because major oil export facilities were heavily damage thus the government resorted to borrowing funds and rescheduling foreign debt payments which could ultimately be summed up to reach at least $80 billion total losses. However, in the 1980s, Iraq slowly regained from these losses as oil exports increased after the rehabilitation and construction of the pipelines and facilities. Using the Harmonized System (HS) classification, it has been identified that the top exports of Iraq are Crude Petroleum ($76B), Refined Petroleum ($890 M), Ethers ($140 M), Tropical Fruits ($65 M) and Gold ($50 M) The top export destinations of Iraq meanwhile would include India ($18 B), China ($16B), the United States (at around $12B), South Korea ($8.3B) and Greece ($4.4B).