TEHRAN – International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a recent ranking of the world’s governments based on the ratio of their expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP), has put Iran in sixth place among 188 countries reviewed.

The fund has estimated the ratio of the Iranian government’s expenditure to the country’s GDP in 2022 at 12.517 percent.

Based on the IMF data, the Iranian government has had the lowest expenditure among the West Asian nations in 2022.

According to the fund, the world’s lowest-spending government in 2022 has been Haiti. The ratio of the total expenses of the Haitian government to the country's gross domestic product in 2022 has been estimated as 10.293 percent.

The governments of Turkmenistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Equatorial Guinea are ranked second to fifth respectively.

Among the countries of West Asia, Iran is said to have the least spending government in 2022. Saudi Arabia, which is ranked 65th in the world, is the second least spending government in West Asia. The ratio of Saudi government expenditure to the country's gross domestic product has been announced as 26.858 percent. Qatar has ranked third with 27.63 percent.

The IMF, in its latest World Economic Outlook report titled “Countering the Cost-of-Living Crisis” published on October 11, predicted that Iran's economy will experience a positive growth of three percent in 2022, following its upward trend for the third consecutive year.

The report said that Iran’s GDP based on purchasing power parity reached $1.6 trillion in 2022, indicating an increase of $150 billion from $1.45 trillion in 2021.

The entity put the Islamic Republic’s GDP per capita at $18,660 in 2022, increasing $1,580 from 2021 in which the figure stood at $17,080.

IMF also saw Iran’s current account balance increase by $20.886 billion in 2022.

Based on the IMF data, Iran’s account balance reached $32.031 billion in 2022 from $11.145 billion in the previous year.

EF/MA