Page 29 - IRANRptFeb22

UNCTAD data ‘shows Iran’s FDI inflow fell 11% in 2020’
Iran saw a foreign direct investment (FDI) decline of around 11% y/y in 2020, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data cited on June 23 by Tehran’s Financial Tribune. Information in UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2021 reportedly showed the UN agency assessing Iran’s FDI inflow at $1.34bn compared to $1.508bn in 2019.
Iran saw FDI inflows of $3.37bn and $5.01bn in 2016 and 2017 after the signing of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. However, foreign investors turned away from Iran after former US president Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the deal in May 2018 and warned such investors that they could face secondary sanctions if they continued to do business with the Islamic Republic. The FDI inflow fell to $2.37bn in 2018, UNCTAD said.
The UN body also estimated Iran's direct investment in other countries at $78mn in coronavirus-afflicted 2020, 8% lower than the $85mn seen the year before.
Iran has lately been posting data showing it is emerging from a recession that lasted almost three years, with the introduction of Trump’s swingeing sanctions the main factor in the economic decline.
6.0 Public Sector 6.1 Budget
Iran’s 2022-23 state budget ‘expected to bear deficit of around 3,000 trillion rial’
Iran’s 2022-23 state budget is expected to bear a deficit of around Iranian rial (IRR) 3,000 trillion ($11bn), according to Hadi Qavami, a deputy minister at the economy ministry, as cited by Tehran’s Financial Tribune. The figure represents a decline of 1,500 rials on the deficit written into the 2021-2022 budget, noted Qavami.
Last year saw the government compelled to make expenditures required to address impacts of the coronavirus crisis.
Iran, meanwhile, would hope for an economic boost should the 2015 nuclear deal be relaunched once ongoing talks between Tehran and major power in Vienna are concluded.
The question of how the US Biden administration could guarantee to Iran that Washington sanctions lifted for a nuclear deal ‘mark II’ would not be reimposed
29 IRAN Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com