CBI: Iran’s economy grew by 3.1% in year to late March

CBI’s initial economic growth figures released on Wednesday showed that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) had increased to 78,443.8 trillion rials (over $301 billion) in the year to March 20.

The CBI considers fixed prices from early 2022, when the US dollar was worth 260,000 rials, for its calculation of the GDP. That comes as the current free market price of the US dollar is 880,000 rials.

The lender, whose economic growth estimates are slightly higher than those announced by Iran’s statistics agency SCI, said the Iranian economy had expanded by 3.7% in the last calendar year, considering free-market prices. It had put Iran’s economic growth at 5.0% in the year to late March 2024.

CBI figures showed that the non-oil sector of the Iranian economy had also expanded by 3.0% in the past calendar year.

The data showed that Iran’s GDP had reached 18,412.5 trillion rials in the quarter to late March, up 3.2% from the quarter to late December 2024.

They showed that the oil and gas sector had been the best performer of the Iranian economy in the past calendar year, with a GDP growth of 4.6%, followed by the services sector at 3.9%.

Iran has reported consecutive quarters of economic growth since the second half of 2020, when the country began to recover from the economic impacts of the US sanctions on its oil exports.

Experts believe rising oil exports and a robust economic diversification program have contributed to the expansion of the Iranian economy in recent years despite the continued pressure of the US sanctions on the country./isna