During the first nine months of 2008, inflation averaged 15.5 percent. Many people saw the surge of wealthy Iraqis as the culprit. Prices jumped in the property and other markets as realtors adjusted their prices to match growing demand. But a study by the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) attributes the inflation rate to the higher costs of fuel and imports. “Inflation rose from 1.6 percent in 2003 to 6.5 percent in 2006, coinciding with the Iraqi influx,” the study reads, “but the primary factors in the inflation were indeed related to the Iraqi war, not attributable to Iraqi consumption or to Iraqis’ real-estate purchases.”

As the violence in Iraq escalated, it caused hardship for its eastern neighbor. Prior to the war, subsidized oil from Iraq kept prices low in the Kingdom, reducing its oil-fuel bill. The war brought an ended those subsidies, boosting prices. However, in a move that will help allay consumer worries over high domestic prices, Jordan recently renewed a contract for cheap Iraqi crude.

According to the CSS study, rising food prices have been caused largely by growing Jordanian food exports to Iraq. The US Defense Department “purchases large quantities of food from Jordan and uses it in Iraq to feed the US and Iraqi armed forces. Meanwhile, demand for food in Jordan has increasingly been filled by imported products which have become more expensive,” it reads.

Unemployment, another matter of concern for Jordanians, remains at around 14 percent. Iraqi refugees were widely blamed for this problem. They have created, their critics say, an illegal employment market that robs ordinary Jordanians of their jobs.

On the other hand, wealthy Iraqi refugees have increasingly been investing in the real estate and manufacturing sector in Jordan since the 2003 invasion. For the first half of 2008, Iraqis topped the list of non-Jordanian investors in the country, with an estimated 18.8 million Jordanian dinars ($26.5 million). In the county’s stock market, Iraqis have invested more than 200 million Jordanian dinars ($282 million) and registered capital of more than 100 million Jordanian dinars ($141 million), according to CSS.

Iraqis hold more foreign direct investment in Jordan than anywhere except the Gulf states. A study by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) states that Iraqi investment pales in comparison with that from other Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE.

Unfortunately, there are no reliable figures on the number of wealthy Iraqis in Jordan. But according to the Norwegian-based Fafo research foundation, 42 percent of Iraqis in Jordan receive money transfers from their home country. An estimated 1.5 million Iraqis refugees fled to Syria, where prices are significantly lower (other havens in the region include Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, among others).

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