Speaking on the sidelines of the 10th Iran Exhibition of Bank, Exchange & Insurance Exhibition (Finex 2017), Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia said “by relying on valuable social capital, the incumbent government managed to increase rate of economic growth from -6.8 to +8.0 as well as to reduce inflation rate from 40% to a single-digit figure.”
“Fluctuations of over 90% in the annual average exchange rate have been replaced by low volatility of about 5 percent so that the misery index, which is the sum of inflation and unemployment, has dropped from 42.6 to 21.4 percent while stability has returned to the economy and stagflation has been terminated.
“If the sharp decline in oil prices had not slowed or reversed the process, a broader economic recovery would have taken place,” underlined the official noting that the achievements of the government were not limited to main macroeconomic indices; rather the government has also launched a set of long-term efforts to reform economic structures of the country which have become aligned with policies of Resistance Economy issued by the Leader.
Tayebnia said constant pursuit of Resistance Economy policies leads to improvements in a wide range of common indicators used to measure quality including Iran’s 32-place improvement in Index of Business, 18-spot improvement in Index of Economic Freedom as well as 14-spot progress in Index of Transparency and Corruption Control.
He said the new Iranian year was a decisive one since the Leader has used overall policies of Resistance Economy to define a roadmap for economic progress; “the Leader has named the new year as 'Year of Production and Employment' to emphasize the need to accelerate implementation of measures in two key areas for strengthening the economy and welfare of the society.”
He said non-oil production and employment need to be boosted in the new year since they play the main role in realizing a high rate of economic growth.
“Economic policies of the government aimed to increase resilience of the economy and overcome limitations caused by sanctions, while the wise foreign diplomacy has provided the groundwork for the elimination of unjust sanctions. Accordingly, cruel sanctions had focused on the country's financial markets and their removal has paved the path for applying reform policies in these markets,” he concluded.
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