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from the global financial system and with officals battling an intensifying third wave of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The currency that was trading at around 32,000 to the USD in 2015 when Iran signed the nuclear deal with six world powers.
Iranian stocks have plunged more than a quarter since their August peak.
The Tehran Stock Exchange’s (TSE’s) benchmark Tedpix index beat 2mn points for the first time earlier this year after share sales in state-owned companies helped to encourage a new generation of Iranian retail investors to buy stocks. But the index has since dropped by around 28%. It traded below 1.5m points on October 5.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) updated forecast in its World Economic Outlook in October, Iran’s GDP will contract 5% this year but bounce back by 3.2% next year. The Iranian economy, battered by US sanctions, shrank 6.5% in 2019 and 5.4% in 2018.
Iranian consumer prices in 2019 rose 41% last year and are on course to grow 30.5% this year and 30% in 2021, the IMF said.
Looking at Iran’s current account balance as a percentage of GDP, the Fund gave figures of 1.1%, -0.5% and 0.3% for 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Unemployment was expected to grow to 12.2% for 2020 from 10.7% in 2019 and rise to 12.4% in 2021, the IMF added.
The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report released on June 8 said that Iran will likely have to reckon with a GDP contraction of 5.3% in 2020, partly reflecting the effects of its large-scale coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on domestic consumption and the services sectors.
5 IRAN Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com
