Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.18/ Trend F.Karimov/
The share of the telecommunications sector in Iran's GDP is projected to reach eight per cent, IRNA quoted Iranian Communications and Information Technology Mohammad-Hassan Nami as saying.
Iran will be one of the most advanced countries of the world in the telecommunication industry by the end of the fifth five-year national development plan (2015), he said.
Business Monitor International (BMI) says Iran has reached a100 per cent telecommunications penetration and expects the Iranian mobile market to cross the 100 per cent penetration threshold in early 2012.
'Iran's mobile market which is by far the largest segment of the country's telecoms industry, exhibited considerably slower growth in 2011 compared to previous years. This reflects the market's maturity with the penetration rate just shy of 100 per cent at the end of the year', BMI said in its new Iran Telecommunications Report.
In April, The International Monetary Fund said Iran's economy should emerge from a recession caused by Western sanctions over its nuclear programme, but not until 2014, a year later than previously forecast, Reuters reported.
The country's gross domestic product is forecast to shrink 1.3 per cent this year after contracting 1.9 per cent last year, the IMF estimated in a report forming part of its half-yearly analysis of the world economy.
That was a downgrade from the IMF's last report in October when it estimated Iran's GDP would shrink only 0.9 per cent in 2012 and grow 0.8 per cent in 2013.
The international body forecast unemployment in Iran would rise to 13.4 per cent this year and 14.7 per cent in 2014 from 12.5 per cents in 2012.
However, the IMF also predicted the GDP would resume expanding in 2014, at a pace of 1.1 per cent. This suggests the economy will be able to find domestic sources of demand to at least partly compensate for its damaged export industries.