Iran expects 3 pct industrial growth rate
Iran's industrial growth rate is expected to hit 3 percent in the current year.
Iranian deputy industry minister Hossein Ayyoubi Mehrizi said the industrial growth rate was minus 9.5 percent in Iranian year 1391 (March 2012-March 2013), Iran's Mehr news agency reported on June 14.
The Iranian calendar year starts on March 20.
The industrial growth rate stood at nearly zero in the past year, he added.
Iran's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 1.5 percent in 2014, according to the World Bank's newly-released Global Economic Prospects report.
Iran's GDP growth is forecasted to reach 2 percent and 2.3 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively, the World Bank's latest Global Economic Prospects report, issued on June 10 said.
The World Bank estimated that the Iranian GDP contracted by 1.7 percent in 2013. This was preceded by a 5.6 percent shrink in 2012.
Last September the Central Bank of Iran announced that the national economy contracted by 5.4 percent in the Iranian fiscal year, which ended on March 20, 2013.
Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ali Tayyebnia said the low economic growth rate is currently the main challenge in the national economy.
The World Bank report projected Iran's current account at 0.2
percent of GDP for 2014.
Current account to GDP in Iran will reach 0.1 percent in 2015 and
zero in 2016, the report said.
The World Bank estimated that the country's current account balance/GDP stood at 0.3 percent and 4.7 percent in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
Fixed investment growth for Iran is predicted to reach 1.1, 1 and 1.5 percent in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.