IMF revises up its 2023 economic growth forecast for Iran

IMF figures cited in a Sunday report by the Fars news agency showed that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) is on track to expand by 2.5% this year, up from a forecast of 2% mentioned in a previous quarterly update of IMF’s biannual World Economic Outlook.

The IMF also revised up its estimate of Iran’s GDP growth in 2022 to 3.5%, up one percentage point from its previous estimate.

The international lender had said earlier this year that higher economic growth for major Asian economies like China and India this year and next year would enable Iran to boost its economic performance by increasing crude oil and petroleum products exports to those countries.

The IMF has also projected that a record inflation rate of 49% in Iran in 2022 would ease to 42% this year and to 30% next year.

The figures confirm report by Iran’s government agencies suggesting the country is on a path to control inflation and to restore economic growth to levels seen before 2018 when the United States withdrew from an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program and imposed sanctions on the country.

The sanctions initially affected Iran’s oil export revenues and led to periods of negative economic growth in the country.

However, the economy started to recoup the losses in the second half of 2022 after it implemented a series of economic reform programs to offset the impacts of sanctions.

Experts believe the US sanctions on Iran gave the country an opportunity to diversify its economy away from oil revenues and to rely more on the domestic resources of the economy.