Iraq crisis raises contagion fears

The unfolding crisis in Iraq has cast a shadow over the region, causing equity markets to tumble. As it happens, the largest MENA economies have only limited trade and financial ties with Iraq, meaning that, in aggregate at least, the economic spillovers should be fairly small. But some countries, such as Jordan, do have relatively large trade ties with Iraq while in others, such as Lebanon, the crisis could exacerbate existing sectarian divisions.