Wednesday 5 June 2019

Iran's GDP growth














The World Bank, in its latest report on the Global Growth Outlook, also cites Iran's statistics, and for the third time its predictions have cut Iran's GDP growth.

The World Bank has placed Iran at the bottom of the table (after Nicaragua) in terms of GDP growth.

In the last half-year, the international organization predicted a positive 4.1% growth in 2019, down from 3.6% in January this year, and now stands at 4.5%.

The report is due to US sanctions, especially targeting Iran's oil exports.

The World Bank has stopped Venezuelan economic growth forecasting with 10% astronomical inflation, but says Iran's economic growth after Nicaragua (minus 5%) would be the lowest in all countries of the world.

Of course, the World Bank's assessment of the Iranian economy is much more optimistic than the International Monetary Fund, which in its latest report predicts that Iran's economy will be about six percent smaller by 2019.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says only Sudan and Iran will grow negatively in 2019. The World Bank estimates that Sudan's economic growth is down 1.9 percent this year.

The World Bank says Iran's inflation rate rises from about 10 percent in the second half of 2018 to around 52 percent in April this year, and a significant drop in the value of the rial has been one of the challenges facing Iran's economic growth.

Iran's national currency has lost much of its value since last year. Earlier last year, the price of the dollar was about 4700 USD. But with the departure of the United States in May of the same year, its price increase started and fell to 18 thousand tomans last fall.