TEHRAN - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its economic growth forecast for Iran in 2024 amid signs the country is becoming increasingly immune to the economic impacts of U.S. sanctions.

In its latest World Economic Outlook published on Tuesday, the IMF forecasted that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 3.7 percent this year, up from a previous estimate of 3.3 percent announced in July.

That comes as IMF’s estimates show that Iran’s economy grew by 5.0 percent in 2023.

The forecasts showed that inflation in Iran will decline to 31.7 percent in 2024 from 40.7 percent last year, while unemployment will drop to 8.0 percent this year from 8.1 percent in 2023.

The IMF said that Iran’s current account balance will be 2.9 percent of its GDP this year, slightly up from 2.8 last year.

The figures are the latest sign that Iran’s economy has actually recovered from the impacts of the U.S. sanctions imposed in 2018 which have mainly targeted the country’s oil exports and its access to the dollar-based banking services in the world.

Iran has been reporting record oil exports in recent months despite the U.S. bans which impose major penalties on buyers with interests in the U.S. economy.

The IMF said that the 2024 global GDP growth will be unchanged from the 3.2 percent projected in July and one percentage point below last year.

However, the entity dialed back its global growth expectation for 2025 from 3.3 percent in July to 3.2 percent in its latest report.

IMF forecasts showed that the U.S. economy will expand by 2.8 percent in 2024 and by 2.2 percent next year while China’s GDP will grow by 4.8 percent this year and by 4.5 percent in 2025.

EF/MA