TEHRAN – The Central Bank of Iran (CBI), in its latest report, has put the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21–September 22) at 3.3 percent.

According to the mentioned data, the figure was 0.5 percent with oil excluded.

The country’s GDP stood at 7.53 quadrillion rials (about $25.965 billion).

During the said period, oil and services sectors grew 15.1 percent, and 5.7 percent, respectively, while agriculture sector experienced negative growth of two percent, and also industries and mining sector had a negative growth of 1.9 percent.

Back in October, International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest World Economic Outlook report titled “Recovery During a Pandemic”, had predicted a 2.5-percent real GDP growth for Iran in 2021, with no change from the fund’s previous report.

The entity had modified its forecasts of the global economic growth from six percent in its previous report to 5.9 percent; the fund expects the global economy to shrink even more in 2022 to settle at 4.9 percent in 2022.

The downward revision for 2021 reflects a downgrade for advanced economies—in part due to supply disruptions—and for low-income developing countries, largely due to worsening pandemic dynamics, according to the report.

“The global economic recovery is continuing, even as the pandemic resurges. The fault lines opened up by COVID-19 are looking more persistent—near-term divergences are expected to leave lasting imprints on medium-term performance. Vaccine access and early policy support are the principal drivers of the gaps,” the report read.

“This is partially offset by stronger near-term prospects among some commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies. The rapid spread of Delta and the threat of new variants have increased uncertainty about how quickly the pandemic can be overcome. Policy choices have become more difficult, with limited room to maneuver.”

IMF had predicted West Asia’s GDP to grow by 4.1 percent in the current year.

The international body saw Iran’s inflation (consumer price changes) at 39.3 percent in 2021, increasing 1.9 percent from 36.4 percent in 2020. The report sees the country’s inflation fall to 27.5 percent in 2022.

As reported, the country’s account balance which was – 0.1 percent of the country’s GDP in 2020 is expected to climb to 1.3 percent in 2021.

Based on the IMF data, despite the sanctions and the negative impact of the pandemic, the Iranian economy is going to outperform many countries both in the region and across the world.

MA/MA