Iran's Industry Grows Fastest in H1

EghtesadOnline: The industrial sector saw the highest growth of 9.1% during the first six months of the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2016) among other economic sectors of Iran, the Statistical Center of Iran's latest report released on Saturday said.

News ID: ۷۳۹۰۹۵

08 January 2017

According to SCI, Iran's GDP growth for the period under review stood at 6.5%, including the growth in oil sector, and 4.5% without it.

The report also shows agriculture and services sector experienced a 5.9% and 5% growth respectively.

The substantial growth owes for the most part to the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran, which led to the opening up of the Iranian economy and normalization of commercial ties with other countries, Financial Tribune reported.

The sanctions were lifted in January as part of a nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers after the country agreed to scale back the scope of its nuclear program.

The Central Bank of Iran puts Iran's H1 economic growth rate higher at 7.4%, including the growth in oil sector. The bank has yet to release the breakdown of its H1 growth report.

A marked result of the removal of sanctions has been a steep rise in oil production that increased by 18.8% to 3.92 million barrels per day during January-September 2016, according to the US Energy Information Agency. The country aims to lift output to 5 million barrels a day within two or three years—at least 1.3 million barrels a day above what it was in 2010, the year before international sanctions were introduced.

The World Bank Group in its latest analysis of Iran’s economy has forecast Iran’s economy to grow at an annual average rate of 4.5% in 2016–18.

The bank, in Iran Economic Monitor for fall, has revised up the real GDP growth for 2016 by 0.1 percentage points at 4.3%, reflecting a larger increase in oil and gas production. In particular, the oil and gas sector is projected to grow by 14.5% in 2016 up from 12.9% in the previous estimate.