A total of 4.74 million tons of goods produced in Tehran Province worth $2.47 billion were exported during the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-Sept. 22), according to a local official.
“Tehran’s exports accounted for 10.21% of Iran’s total exports during the period,” Hassan Mirzaei, the deputy head of Tehran Industries, Mining and Trade Organization, was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
“Exports from the industrial sector stood at $245 million, those of agriculture sector at $153 million, carpet and handicrafts at $48 million, petrochemicals at $51 million and mines and mining industries at $94 million.”
Turkey, Iraq, Germany, Afghanistan and Pakistan were the top five export destinations, which collectively accounted for 61.26% of the province’s total exports during the period, he added.
The official noted that a total of 244,000 tons of goods worth $4.8 billion were imported into the province during the same period, registering a 12.74% drop.
According to Mirzaei, the share of Tehran’s imports from the country’s total imports amounted to 18.47%.
Tehran Economy
With an area of 13,500 square kilometers and a population of 13.97 million, Tehran ranks the 29th province in terms of area but first in terms of population among Iran’s 31 provinces, according to Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
Tehran’s urbanization rate stands at 94.3%, while the country’s average rate is 75.4%. Tehran Province ranks second after Qom in terms of urbanization.
With the exception of unemployment, other labor market components are not favorable compared to the country’s average rate. The employment rate in Tehran stands at 36.9%, which is relatively too low.
The services sector has the biggest share in Tehran’s labor market, as agriculture only accounts for 1.5% of the market. The industrial sector’s share in Tehran Province and the country is almost similar.
Although the nominal gross domestic product of Tehran grew by 800% during the fiscal 2011-21, the share of the province from Iran’s GDP has remained the same. In the fiscal 2020-21, Tehran’s share from Iran’s GDP stood at 22.4%, which is almost equal to that of the fiscal 2017-18 (22.5%). The province’s highest GDP share was registered in the fiscal 2015-16 with 23.8%.
Tehran’s services sector plays a major role in the country’s GDP. Notably, the province accounts for 79% of Iran’s GDP from “information and communications” and 65% from “finance and insurance”. However, it accounts for only 0.7% and 4.4% of “mine extraction” and “agriculture”. In the fiscal 2020-21, Tehran’s share of the country’s GDP in “electricity and gas supplement” increased by 9.4 percentage points to 16.8%.
The services sector, by a wide margin compared to other sectors, creates the highest GDP (72%) in the province. One of the most important reasons behind the sector’s high share in GDP is the concentration of public services in the province, as the capital city is home to a vast number of buildings in urban areas which, in turn, has a relatively high share of real-estate, retail and wholesale services.
Real estate, “wholesales and retails” and “finance and insurance” together account for 46% of Tehran’s total GDP and 64% of its services sector.
The share of “construction industry” and “building” in Tehran Province’s GDP stands at 15.7% and 4.7% respectively, lower than the country’s average (18.6% and 5% respectively).
“Petroleum products”, “food industry”, “rubber and plastic products” and “medicine” have an aggregate share of about 52% from the province’s total GDP.
In the first eight years of the past decade (March 2011-21), the general trend of Tehran Province’s real GDP growth was upward, similar to that of the country. With the intensification of sanctions in the fiscal 2018-19 along with the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years, the country’s production was affected, although the two factors’ impact on Tehran’s GDP was less intense compared to that suffered by the country’s GDP in the fiscal 2018-19 and fiscal 2019-20.
However, in the fiscal 2020-21, this trend reversed, as the impact on the province grew larger while it subsided nationwide. Tehran Province’s real GDP stood at 1.76 quadrillion rials ($6.4 billion), almost unchanged compared to the figure in the fiscal 2017-18.
The general trend of Tehran Province’s GDP growth over the past decade (fiscal 2011-12 to fiscal 2020-21) was positive as the average annual growth in this period stands at about 2.3%. The figure is higher than the average annual growth of 0.3% registered nationwide.
Compared with the economic growth of the country, except in the fiscal 2017-18 and 2018-19, the trends registered for both the country and the province were aligned. This is while the recession period in the province was shorter. Growth in Tehran between the fiscal 2016-17 and 2018-19 grew at a faster pace compared with the country’s average. But in the fiscal 2019-20, the provincial growth stood at -0.03%, while the country’s economy grew 1%.
During the decade under review, “water and electricity”, with an average annual growth of 15.4%, had the highest average GDP growth.
The rate for “accommodation and food services” declined by 9.9% annually. This group had the highest decline (-62%) in the fiscal 2020-21 and the main reason behind the decline was the impact of Covid-19.
