Page 14 - IRANRptFeb22

59% of Iranians tell Gallup their local economy is getting worse
Iran improves position on Global Innovation Index
Nearly six in 10 (59%) Iranians told a Gallup survey that their local economy was getting worse.
Gallup on November 12 released results of a survey conducted August 24-31, three weeks after the country's new president, hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, took office. Raisi inherited an economy battered by sanctions.
More than nine in 10 Iranians (91%) said it was a bad time to find a job where they live, unchanged from 2020. At no point in Gallup's trend recorded since 2007 have less than 66% of Iranians said it was a bad time to find a job in their local areas, though since 2018, when the former Trump administration reintroduced heavy US sanctions against Iran, pessimism has been even higher than in previous years, Gallup said.
Giving its “Bottom Line”, the polling company concluded: “The former Trump administration's reimposition of sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic both seriously affected Iran's economy, with the country's GDP contracting by an estimated 4.99% in 2020 alone. Inflation in the country has spiked and petroleum exports have plummeted, the impact of which has likely been exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed to control the disease. The effects of these concrete measures of economic pain are reflected in Iranians' negative views of their economies and job markets.
“These woes likely helped sour Iranians on the country's former President Hassan Rouhani, who had a 32% job approval rate in the last survey before he left office. Iranians are substantially more optimistic about Raisi. However, that optimism is likely to fade if he cannot turn the country's economy around—a task that is likely to prove difficult the longer stringent U.S. and other international sanctions remain in place. Recent increases in oil prices around the globe may provide some level of cushioning for the new government.”
Iran has improved its position on the Global Innovation Index (GII). The 2021 edition of the global ranking is dedicated to the development of innovations in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, taking into account how economies have coped with online development during the prolonged difficulties it has caused.
Iran has been ranked in 60th place. That bumped it up a handful of places and classified the country as one of the biggest gainers in its region in the past 12 months.
Iran also ranked 13th among the middle-and upper-middle-income countries and second in the Central and South Asia grouping, ahead of other regional growth markets including Uzbekistan at 86th and Kazakhstan at 79th place. Iran placed ahead of other regional players, including Armenia and Pakistan, in terms of its innovation output performance, but behind countries including Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Iran and Brazil were described by the GII as 2021 outperformers. But the report noted how despite Iran’s improvement, the country remained “stubbornly a long distance behind” in the “geography of global innovation category.”
14 IRAN Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com