Figures by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) show that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by nearly a half in the calendar year to March this year.
A Sunday report by the official IRNA news agency cited CBI figures showing that GDP surged to 35,085 trillion rials ($132.4 billion) in the year to March 20, up 43.7% against 24,413 trillion rials reported in the previous year.
Calculated on prices of baseline year 2011, when one US dollar was equal to 38,000 Iranian rials, GDP rose by 3.4% to 6,499 trillion rials ($171 billion), showed CBI figures.
The figures are consistent with CBI reports released earlier this year suggesting that Iran’s economy had expanded by 3.6% last calendar year after two consecutive periods of contraction.
The Iranian economy has been struggling in recent years under the double burden of US sanctions and a major outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The country has seen high but controlled levels of inflation since the US sanctions were imposed in 2018.
The sanctions have hampered Iran’s normal sales of crude but have spurred more manufacturing and agricultural activity in the country.
However, GDP started to return to positive growth region in second quarter of last fiscal year in late September.
IRNA’s Sunday report showed that Iran’s net national income had topped 28,121 trillion rials ($106.1 billion) in the year to March 2020, 150% up against the previous year.
Gross national saving, a sum reached by deducting consumption expenditures from national income, reached 13,010 trillion rials ($49.09 billion).