An ‘Improvement’ over
Previous Year
Iranian government’s
Center for Statistics reported today that the economy in Iranian calendar year
1392 (ending March 2014) shrank by 2.2 percent. In the same period, the
country’s industrial sector showed a negative -4.5 percent growth, the service
sector shrank by 9 percent, while agricultural sector grew at 1.2 percent.
(Fars News Agency, 2 August)
Iranian economy started
shrinking in 2012, partly due to toughest sanctions against oil and banking
sector - The Center for Statistics had reported that the economy had a negative
-6.8 percent growth during the previous year (ending March 2013), during Ahmadinejad
administration’s last year, making the latest figure of 2.2 percent negative
growth an improvement, if any shrinking of an economy could be characterized as
such.
"The World Bank forecasted in its Global Economic Prospects report that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 1.5 percent in 2014."
ReplyDeletewhich is not at all good and will still leave the economy much smaller than it was at the beginning of 2012.
DeleteThat negative 2.2 percent figure for Iran (for the year), is actually better than the negative 2.9 figure experienced here in the United States for Q1 of 2014,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm
Iran is a developing country, and the comparison of its GDP growth to those of mature economies is not applicable. A developing economy needs to expand every quarter and every year. Unfortunately, Iran's has been contracting since 2012, as noted by the Center for Statistics above.
DeleteBTW, in the 2Q 2014, the latest statistics available, the U.S. economy grew by 4 percent, putting the GDP growth for the first half of the year in positive territory, with 2 percent growth forecast for the entire year.
In addition to the valid points raised by Mr. Uskowi, isn't comparing quarterly numbers with annual numbers one of those apples-and-oranges situations?
DeleteNader Uskowi,how come South Korea is a developed nation and Iran which was ahead of them in the past is still a developing country? Don't you think Iran has been contracting since before 2012? More like since the national suicide of 1979?
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