TEHRAN - The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest quarterly report dubbed World Economic Outlook, has announced that the Iranian economy has outperformed many of the world powers in 2023 with a growth of 5.4 percent.

According to the IMF data, Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 was higher than almost all of the world’s major economies including the U.S., China, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and many more.

The Islamic Republic’s economic growth in 2023 was nearly 1.6 percent more than the country’s GDP growth in 2022. 

The IMF has also reviewed its forecast of Iran’s economic growth for 2024 from 2.5 percent in October to 3.8 percent.

The increase in Iran’s economic growth happens at a time when global growth has slowed to 3.1 percent. The average economic growth of the developed economies has been reported to be 1.6 percent in 2023 while the figure stood at 2.6 percent in 2022.

Developing countries have also had an average growth of 4.1 percent in 2023, indicating that Iran's economy increased more than the average of its equivalents.

West Asian economies grew by an average of 2.0 percent. In that region, Saudi Arabia recorded -1.1 percent growth.

The economic growth of some other countries in 2023 was as follows: the U.S. 2.5 percent, Germany negative 0.3 percent, France 0.8 percent, UK 0.5 percent, China 5.2 percent, Russia 3.0 percent, Brazil 3.1 percent, Turkey 4.0 percent and Pakistan - 0.2 percent.

As announced by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) including oil grew 4.7 percent in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21 – September 22, 2023) compared to the same period last year.

Based on the CBI data, the figure was 3.6 percent excluding oil.

The World Bank in a recent report on Iran’s economy dubbed “Iran Economic Monitor” said the Islamic Republic’s economy has been expanding despite the sanctions and global economic conditions.

EF/MA