Iran chief banker says economy minus oil thriving on %0.5 growth rate
Iran’s economy excluding oil has recorded a growth rate of %0.5 in the first six months of the Persian calendar year, says the country’s chief banker.
Abdolnasser Hemmati, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said on Tuesday that the economic growth recorded between March 21 and September 22, 2019 was %2.3 year-on-year given the minus-%1.8 rate seen at the end of the similar period last year.
“Generally speaking and given the half-percentage-point growth of the non-oil section, we hope the rate could increase in the months to come,” said Hemmati in video footage posted online.
The CBI governor said mining and metals and the housing sectors had the highest impact on the positive growth rate this year, adding that the farming sector had shown a growth rate of more than nine percent between July and September.
He said the services sector had experienced the lowest rate of growth over the six-month period mainly as a result of a recession in the tourism industry.
Hemmati on Monday had posted a similar set of figures about growth in the non-oil section of the Iranian economy without elaborating on the source of the data.
However, the announcement comes amid a wave of US sanctions that have affected government revenues from the sale of crude.
The sanctions, enacted in November 2018 and reinforced in May this year, have forced the Iranian government to launch a series of initiatives to diversify the economy away from oil.
A main component of those programs have been to strengthen the exports of agri-food, metals, and the petrochemicals as the government tries to find alternative sources of hard currency that could compensate for the losses suffered in the direct sale of oil.
A draft budget for the next calendar year, which was announced earlier this month, is largely based on foreign currency revenues that are independent of oil exports.
Hemmati admitted in his Tuesday announcement that the oil sector had left its “negative impact” on the economy this year.
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