Figures and statistics released by the Central Bank of Iran show that despite the COVID19 pandemic impact on economies and the US sanctions against Iran, it has seen the highest economic growth among countries in the West Asia region.
Iran’s economic growth faced a downturn when the former US President Donald Trump started to fulfil his campaign promise to withdraw his country from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
As figures show, Iran’s economic growth touched an amazing number of 12.5 percent in the year following the signing of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), informally known as Iran nuclear deal, during Barack Obama administration.
However, Iran’s economic growth lowered to 3.7 in 2017 after Trump took office and slid down to the negative zone when the former US President announced Washington’s withdrawal from the deal. The figure went down to -4.8 and -7 respectively in 2018 and 2019.
This was because of the US intense pressure manifested in so-called ‘maximum pressure’ designed by Trump administration to choke Iran’s economy until it collapses.
However, Iran could find its way out by the policy of resistance and bring economic growth back into the positive region. Iran’s economic growth hit 3.6 percent in 2020, though US sanctions coupled with the coronavirus pandemic that had badly hit world economy.
In the meantime, World Bank’s annual reports and its anticipation of the years ahead show that Iran’s economy would continue to grow at least until 2024.
At the same period, most of the countries in West Asia region have seen negative economic growth after the pandemic and they are still in challenge.
World Bank figures indicated that among the countries in the Middle East and North Africa, only Iran, Egypt and Djibouti have had a positive economic growth in 2020.