CBI: Double-Digit Growth to Continue

Economic growth rate stood at 11.6% for the nine months to December 20, 2016, and the figure is predicted to keep up its double-digit momentum in the current Iranian year (started March 21), the Central Bank of Iran's deputy for economic affairs said.   

"The major part of the growth is due to resumption of oil exports, which is only natural since Iran is clawing back its share from the global market," Peyman Qorbani was also quoted as saying by IBENA.

"Despite the fact that non-oil growth stood at 1.9% for the first nine month of the previous Iranian year, the growth rate looks promising since the figure reached 4.6% in the third quarter (September to December 2016), which indicates that most sectors of the economy have witnessed developments," he added.

The CBI deputy noted that the agriculture sector experienced a good year, as the banking system shouldered 45% of the guaranteed purchase of wheat and basic commodities.

"The industrial sector also grew by 14.6% during the first nine months of the previous Iranian year and growth in various parts of the sector is acceptable. About 7,500 small- and medium-sized enterprises received loans worth 165 trillion rials ($4.4 billion) to register a significant growth," he said.

Services and tourism sectors also had a share of loans to register a positive growth, but the only sector to still remain in recession is housing.

"Banks are suffering from a credit crunch so we should not be hasty in creating jobs since that would put undue pressure on banks," he added.

Qorbani also said the goal for this year is to improve non-oil production, adding that given the recent rainfall, the prospects of agriculture sector look bright.

"CBI will continue its policies to support the industrial sector, especially in financing SMEs. However, we need to be careful about where to allocate those loans to prevent any leap in inflation and foreign exchange rate," he said.