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report noted the average family spends on average 262.3mn ($6,978) per year so little is made in savings. The report also added that the average household consists of 3.4 members and that families of four now account for 30.4% of the society. The majority of families (59.8%) have only one breadwinner. Housing costs account for the biggest slice of income expenditure.
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook released last October forecast that unemployment would increase to 12.8% in 2018 and 14.3% in 2019.
5.0 External Sector & Trade
5.1 Balance of payments and current account
Iran targets big trade boost with neighbours
Iranian Deputy Industry Minister Hossein Modares Khiabani has said his ministry wants to quickly raise the annual value of exports to Iran’s 15 neighbours to $50bn, Tasnim news agency reported on August 31.
Crucial to that strategy will be taking advantage of a preferential trade agreement due in November to come into effect between Iran and member states of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)—namely Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
“Our goal is to be able to meet five percent of our neighbouring countries’ needs, which would amount to more than $50 billion a year considering the total imports of all the 15 countries which is at least $1 trillion annually,” Modares Khiabani was reported as saying.
“Necessary planning and investigations have been made for achieving this target,” he added.
Iran shares a border with the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Oman, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Based on data published by Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), bilateral trade with these countries stood at more than $36.5bn in the last Iranian calendar year, representing around 41% of the country’s total non-oil trade.
16 IRAN Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com