Iran Says Economic Growth Promising Despite US Sanctions

Hemmati said on Thursday in a post on his Instagram page that growth recorded in the first quarter of the local calendar year, compared to the similar period in 2018, was a first to come after months of depression that began following a decision by the United States last year to withdraw from an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and impose sanctions on the country.

The CBI governor said the meager figure reported for growth in the period was below Iran’s real economic potentials.

He said, however, that the development was “promising” given that Iran had reported three quarters of negative growth over 2018-2019.

“This achievement has been realized in light of tranquility and relative stability of the market and easing of the impacts of the foreign shocks caused by sanction and pressure,” said Hemmati.

The chief banker further said that Iran’s banking system would commit itself to more loans and credits to various economic sectors in the future months to help boost the current growth in the economy.

He said it had been agreed in a recent meeting attended by Iran’s First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, senior ministers and CEOs of banks to earmark a package of loans worth nearly $9 billion to the leading sectors of the economy.

Washington’s unilateral sanctions against Tehran began in November 2018, five months after US President Donald Trump withdrew from an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Claiming that the bans were working properly, Trump tightened them in May, only to see that Iran was finding new solutions to recoup the losses.

Last month, Deputy Head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) Ali Asqar Masaheb announced that Iran will undertake new measures to further strengthen its non-oil exports with a new bill to be tabled at the Iranian Parliament.

Iranian officials started planning for policies to counter the US possible sanctions a year before Donald Trump entered into office in early 2017. The policies are now proving effective as economic indexes are indicating inefficacy of the US pressures.

Earlier in July, Iran’s Minister of Industry Reza Rahmani said that despite US efforts to cripple Tehran’s economy, year-on-year comparison shows that the country’s domestic production has increased in the first quarter of the local calendar year (March 21-June 21).