Baku, Azerbaijan, April 20
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
Mineral products accounted for 19 percent of Iran’s total exports over the last calendar year which ended on March 21 as the country exports of minerals were valued at $8.9 billion.
According to the data published by the industry ministry of Iran, the exports of mineral products in the mentioned period grew by 3.2 percent in value terms but the volume of exports declined by 7.8 percent to stand at 60.2 million tons.
Steel products in this period accounted for $3.6 billion, demonstrating a rise of 27.7 percent compared to the same time of the preceding year.
In the meantime, the country exported iron ore worth $984.2 million, cement worth $603 million, and downstream products worth $564.9 million.
There are over 10,000 mines in the country out of which about 6,000 are actively engaged in production and rest remains idle.
The county’s annual output from its mines stands at 400 million tons and construction materials account for 60 percent of the total output.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted a 4-percent growth rate for Iran’s economy in 2018 and a 4 percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth for 2019 as well.
The Islamic Republic experienced 4.3 percent GDP growth in 2017, IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic plans to achieve an economic growth of 8 percent according to a five-year plan that has started in 2017.
The organization also put Iran's inflation rate at 9.9 percent in 2017, forecasting that the figure will increase to 12.1 percent this year.
Iran's inflation is forecasted to stand at 11.5 percent by 2019, according to the IMF.
Furthermore, the current account balance in Iran is expected to reach 7 percent of GDP in 2018 and 6.3 percent of the GDP in 2019, compared to 4.3 percent in 2017.
Meanwhile, Iran's unemployment rate stood at 11.8 percent in last year, it is projected to fall to 11.7 percent this year and reach to 11.6 percent in 2019.
The IMF predicted the economies of the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan as a whole to grow by 3.4 percent in 2018 and 3.7 percent in 2019.
The monetary fund also projected a 3.9 percent growth for the global economy in 2018 and 2019, compared to 3.8 percent in 2017.