World Bank says Iran has become world’s 3rd largest energy subsidizer

A report by the IRNA cited figures from the World Bank’s newly-released report, which has been compiled based on statistics from 2020, showing that the Iranian government had disbursed $41.72 billion in energy subsidies to its citizens in that year, trailing only behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Electricity received the largest share of the subsidy payments provided by the Iranian government in 2020, at some $26.51 billion.

An additional $15.21 billion was allocated to gasoline and other oil products in that year, and $10.44 billion to consumer subsidies for diesel.

In total, five countries; Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and Venezuela, accounted for nearly half of the world’s total energy subsidies.

They collectively allocated $211 billion in subsidies for fuel consumption to their citizens, equivalent to almost half of the world’s explicit subsidies.