Page 4 - IRANRptMay20
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1.0 Executive summary
Iran has the world’s third worst coronavirus epidemic, behind those of China and Italy. On April 29, the ministry announced 80 more deaths of people from, or with, a coronavirus infection, taking the total to 5,957. Officially, Iran has recorded 93,657 COVID-19 cases, with 2,965 patients said to be in a serious or critical condition.
Moreover, Iran’s economy has been battered by US sanctions since Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the nuclear deal in May 2018 and switched back to a heavy sanctions regime. The Iranian rial (IRR) has dropped around fourfold against major currencies.
The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Abdolnasser Hemmati, has urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to use the EU trading mechanism known as Instex or the Swiss facility SHTA to provide Tehran with a $5bn emergency loanit has applied for to help it address the country’s severe coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Bloomberg has reported. The possibility of the IMF paying the loan has been blocked by the US, with Trump administration officials claiming Iran’s ruling regime cannot be trusted to spend all of the money on humanitarian needs.
Meanwhile, the EU has extended a €20 loan to Iran that is to be used for humanitarian purposes in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, spokesman for the bloc Peter Stano told Trend News Agency on April 19. Iran has received funding to help with its battle against its virus outbreak from several sources in recent days including the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank (WB), which offered €50mn and €150mn, respectively, ISNA reported. The EU loan is likely to be used for medical and testing equipment.
In a letter to world leaders sent on March 14, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Europe and Iran were involved in the same struggle and how efforts to fight COVID-19 pandemic in Iran have been severely hampered by US sanctions, urging them to cease observing them.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that “any nation considering humanitarian assistance to Iran should seek the release of all dual and foreign nationals” from Iranian prisons. April 21 saw Iran release more than 1,000 foreign prisoners so that they can better protect themselves against the COVID-19 outbreak. British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, accused of activities aimed at toppling Iran’s clerical establishment, which she denies, was among 100,000 prisoners temporarily released last month.
According to the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released on April 14, Iran will this year suffer a GDP contraction of 6%. Warning that the “Great Lockdown” brought about around the world by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic would cause the worst recession experienced internationally since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the IMF said Iran was inevitably in for another tough year following last year’s estimated 7.6% decline in economic output, although it added that the country might achieve growth of 3.1% in 2021.
4 IRAN Country Report May 2020 www.intellinews.com
