Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
The volume of foreign investment in Iran is forecasted to reach $13 billion over the current fiscal year (ending March 21).
The country has already attracted $11 billion in foreign investment over the past ten months, says Hossein Salimi, chairman of Iranian and Foreign Joint Venture Investment Association, affiliated to Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
According to the official, the volume of the foreign investment in the Islamic Republic in March 2015 stood at $2.5 billion, the official news website of the Iranian government reported.
Hossein Salimi further added that the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA/nuclear deal) has encouraged foreigners to invest in Iran.
The landmark nuclear deal was implemented in January 2016 easing nuclear related sanctions on the Islamic Republic in return for curbing the country’s nuclear activity.
He said that the volume of foreign investment in the country surged by four times over the last Iranian calendar year as compared to the preceding year.
Iran in order to hit an economic growth of eight percent needs to finance about 20 percent of its development projects through foreign investment.
Therefore, Tehran has drawn up a plan to annually attract $43 billion in foreign investment over the coming years.
The volume of foreign investment in the country reached $4.7 billion in 2012 which dropped to $3.1 billion in 2013 and $2.1 billion in 2014.
President Hassan Rouhani through his proposed draft budget plan has suggested that the country’s economic growth over the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21) will amount to 7.7 percent with an inflation rate of 7.6 percent.
The World Bank has forecasted that Iran’s economic growth in 2017 would hit 5.2 percent, 4.8 percent in 2018 and 4.5 percent in 2019.
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