TEHRAN – The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Akbar Komeijani has put the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the previous Iranian calendar year 1399(ended on March 20) at 3.5 percent, IRIB reported.

Speaking at the bank’s 61st meeting of the ordinary annual general assembly on Sunday, Komeijani put the growth of the country’s Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) in the previous year at 2.5 percent.

As reported, the CBI’s 61st annual general assembly meeting was chaired by President Hassan Rouhani and attended by the bank’s board members.

In the mentioned meeting, Komeijani presented a report on the bank’s performance over the past eight years.

The official noted that when the current government took office in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (started on March 20, 2013) the country’s economic growth was – 7.7 percent.

Following the strategic measures taken by the government and the CBI, the GDP growth started an upward trend in the following years so that in the Iranian calendar year 1393 (started in March 2014) the country’s GDP growth reached +3.2 percent, according to Komeijani.

He further noted that the increase in the country’s economic growth continued until 2018 when the U.S. withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

“Following the withdrawal of the U.S. government from the nuclear deal in [the Iranian calendar year 1397 (started in March 2018) and the re-imposition of economic sanctions and restrictions on foreign financial and trade transactions, the country’s GDP experienced a decrease of 5.4 and 6.5 percent in the Iranian calendar years of 1397 and 1398 (started in March 2019), respectively.”

Referring to the measures adopted in the Iranian calendar year 1399 to manage and curb the negative impacts of the sanctions, the CBI governor continued: “However, in 1399, due to the measures taken for nullifying the impacts of the sanctions on the economy, GDP and GFCF growth reached 3.6 and 2.5 percent, respectively.”

The economic growth of 3.6 percent in the previous year was achieved in a situation where many countries in the world, affected by the negative consequences of the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, faced a sharp decline in economic growth, Komeijani stressed.

EF/MA