WB Forecasts 4.3% Growth for Iran by 2020

Growth in Iran, the second largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa region, is expected to reach 4.3% by 2020, with higher investment growth offset by lower oil production and limited access to finance, reads the World Bank’s latest “Global Economic Prospects” report.  “Besides the effect of a slowdown in its oil sector following an exceptionally high 2016 surge, activity in the Islamic Republic of Iran was dampened by weak foreign investor confidence associated with geopolitical tensions (including new sanctions and hardened nuclear-deal stance by the United States),” it went on to read. The World Bank estimates that Iran’s economy grew by 3.6% in 2017 after having shrunk by 1.3% in 2015 and expanded by a staggering 13.4% in 2016. Its projections for 2018 and 2019 are 4% and 4.3% respectively.