Baku, Azerbaijan, May 9
By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:
In order to reduce the rising unemployment rate in the country, Iran needs over $233 billion worth of investments, said an Iranian official.
Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht has said that the country needs to create 950,000 vacancies per year which requires $233 billion worth of investment (7.7 quadrillion rials), ISNA news agency reported.
Less than 10 days before presidential election in Iran, the presidential nominees have come up with promises to address unemployment, a major problem in the oil-producing country.
Ebrahim Raeisi and Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf have emerged as the main challengers to the incumbent President Hassan Rouhani who seeks re-election in the May 19 election.
According to the World Bank, the Iranian economy bounced back sharply in 2016 at an estimated 6.4 percent.
However, the unemployment rate returned to a three-year high of 12.7 percent (or 3.3 million unemployed) in the second quarter of 2016 despite the high growth rate in this period.