The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdol-Nasser Hemmati has said that while Iran's economy was coming out of recession in early 2020, due to the pandemic the country's economic growth slowed down, Trend reports citing Mehr.
Speaking to state TV on Saturday, Hemmati said that "coronavirus pandemic caused the country's economic growth, which was on the verge of becoming positive, to become negative again, but the resilience of the Iranian economy helped it to overcome the recession after a while and the country's economic growth became positive again."
The CBI chief added that in 2018 and 2019, Iran's economy recorded negative growth due to the return of economic sanctions after the US illegal move in violation of the nuclear deal, but the economy was recovering from the sanctions and becoming positive before the pandemic arrived.
Hemmati considered the decrease in the services sector as the most important factor behind the decline of the economy in the first months of last Iranian year and added, "Iran's economy gradually came out the recession in the second and third seasons of the previous year (summer and autumn)."
The governor of the Central Bank estimated that the impact of the decline in the services sector on the overall economy at more than 50 percent and said, "Most job opportunities were lost in this sector and about one million people, mostly part-time service job holders, lost their jobs due to pandemic."
He further added that the country is selling more oils as compared to last year now.