The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the Iranian economy will continue to grow in 2022 despite continued pressure on the country because of American sanctions and the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) would increase by 3% this year.
The global crisis lender also revised up its estimate of Iran’s GDP growth in 2021 from 3% to 4%.
Tables published in the IMF report showed that Iran’s economic growth will drop by one percentage point to stand at 2% in 2023.
The estimates come as Iran has been facing an unprecedented wave of economic sanctions by the United States since the middle of 2018.
The Iranian economy has also grappled with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic which started to spread in the country in early 2020.
US sanctions have mostly targeted Iran’s sale of crude oil and its ability to engage in dollar transactions in the global banking system.
Recent reports have suggested that Iran’s oil exports have rebounded from record lows of less than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) seen in 2019 to more than 1.5 million bpd in late 2021 and early 2022.
The IMF report estimated Iran’s annual inflation rate was at 40.1% at the end of 2021, up from 36.4% in 2020. It predicted that the rate will decline to 32.3% in 2022 and to 27.5% in 2023.
It estimated that jobless rate in Iran will reach 10.2% this year and 10.5% in 2023, up from 9.8% reported last year.