Iraq plans to cut interest rates by one percentage point to 15 percent to aid growth, the central bank's governor said on Thursday, adding it wants to cut annual core inflation to 10 percent in 2009 from 13 percent currently. Sinan al-Shibibi told Reuters in Amman that the economy's non-oil growth was "modest this year at 3.5 percent". The government aimed to lift that to 5 percent in 2009 and at least 7 percent in 2010, he said. "We will take an imminent move to bring interest rates down," he said. "Interest rates of banks will be lowered by one percentage point to 15 percent," he said. A planned cut in bank interest rates of one percentage point should spur growth, he said. The core inflation data excludes expenditure on oil, gas and petrol. Many Iraqis buy petrol on the black market, where prices fluctuate greatly.
