TEHRAN - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has put the Islamic Republic of Iran’s GDP at 1 trillion dollars in the year 2021.

According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook report released in October 2021, Iran is even ranked higher than regional countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey as two heavyweight economies, which are members of the G-20 group.

The statistics come as Iran has been under the heaviest illegal sanctions in history when Donald Trump officially withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal – JCPOA) – in May 2018 under his “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic.

When Trump abandoned the JCPOA, his top hawkish diplomat Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will impose “the strongest sanctions in history” on Iran. Also in November 2018, John Bolton, who was the White House national security advisor at the time, said, “It’s our intention to squeeze them (Iranians) very hard… until the pips squeak.”

The Trump administration imposed as many sanctions as possible to the extent that his treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the U.S. is running out of options for more sanctions on Iran.

However, the data by the IMF proves that the illusions were wrong.

The chief reason may be that Iran has built an economy based on resistance with the least reliance on oil incomes. In other words, Iran has turned into a self-reliant economy with a primary focus on domestic capacities and knowledge-based companies.

Iran has gradually taken a departure from "addiction" to oil money to import goods. It mostly produces what it's needed, though with a lower quality. However, it has set the bedrock for continued economic development.

A professor of economy at Shahid Beheshti University says Iran has broken the record of the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in running the country without oil income.

Iran has learned that it should move toward a generative economy. It has also realized that necessity is the mother of invention.

The figures by the IMF show that 1-trillion-dollar GDP in the current year happened despite the fact that Iran has been among the hardest-hit countries by the Covid-19 pandemic in the world. The disease, among many malaises, also brought Iran’s income from tourism to nearly zero.

Facing political and economic pressure from the West, the Islamic Republic has also sought to develop economic and trade ties with Eurasian Economic Union countries.  It was also admitted as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in September 2020. Through reliance on domestic capacities and developing ties with regional blocs, Iran has proven that the world is not just the West.

Iran overtaking Netherlands, Switzerland in the top 20 list

According to the report, Iran would be overtaking the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Switzerland in the top 20 list.

the United States and China would occupy the first two places in both methods' GDP ranking.

It also said China will remain the world's largest economy on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis over the next few decades as 2nd ranked U.S. is growing slow and 3rd ranked India is way behind.

In the nominal GDP list, there would be no change in the top 10.

Among the top 50, the economic rank of South Africa would move up by eight positions, while Egypt would lose four places.

In the PPP ranking, there would be no change in the top 10 list. Other changes in the top 20 would be Taiwan overtaking Australia. Among the top 50, Ireland will climb three spots.

In the list of top 50, all economies will experience a positive growth rate in 2021. Ireland is the fastest-growing economy with 14.04%, followed by Chile (11.00%). Thailand has the lowest growth rate of 0.96%, followed by the United Arab Emirates (2.24%) and Japan (2.36%).