Productivity in Iran has grown minimally by 0.5 percent over the past 15 years, head of the National Iranian Productivity Organization, Roya Tabatabaei Yazdi was quoted by IRNA as saying on Monday. Western sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear energy program, lower investments and failure to take advantage of new technologies led to negative productivity growth rate in the three consecutive years from 2011 to 2013, she said. Productivity is an average measure of production efficiency and a crucial factor in assessing the performance of companies and countries. Increasing national productivity can raise living standards because more income means better goods, services, and education and contributes to social and environmental programs.
