TEHRAN - The World Bank, in its latest Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report released on January 9, said the Iranian economy grew by 4.2 percent in 2023, despite a sharp, long-lasting slowdown in the global economy.

Based on the WB data, the economic growth of West Asian and North African countries has decreased from 5.8 percent in 2022 to 1.9 percent in 2023, indicating that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2023 has been more than twice the economic growth of this region.

“Growth picked up in the Islamic Republic of Iran, as increases in oil production and exports more than offset weak external non-oil demand,” the report said.

According to the estimates of this international organization, following the global economy, Iran's economic growth is also expected to recede slightly to 3.7 percent in 2024. The Islamic Republic’s GDP growth in 2022 was 3.8 percent.

The economic growth of Europe and Central Asia, which decreased from 7.1 percent in 2021 to 1.2 percent in 2022, has also grown slightly to 2.7 this year however the figure is seen to fall to 2.4 percent in 2024.

According to the report, global growth is projected to slow for the third year in a row—from 2.6 percent last year to 2.4 percent in 2024, almost three-quarters of a percentage point below the average of the 2010s. Developing economies are projected to grow just 3.9 percent, more than one percentage point below the average of the previous decade.

“After a disappointing performance last year, low-income countries should grow 5.5 percent, weaker than previously expected. By the end of 2024, people in about one out of every four developing countries and about 40 percent of low-income countries will still be poorer than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. In advanced economies, meanwhile, growth is set to slow to 1.2 percent this year from 1.5 percent in 2023,” the WB stated.

“As the world nears the midpoint of what was intended to be a transformative decade for development, the global economy is set to rack up a sorry record by the end of 2024 —the slowest half-decade of GDP growth in 30 years,” the entity said.

By one measure, the global economy is in a better place than it was a year ago: the risk of a global recession has receded, largely because of the strength of the U.S. economy. But mounting geopolitical tensions could create fresh near-term hazards for the world economy, according to the report.

EF/MA