Baku, Azerbaijan, May 5
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted that Iran’s gross official reserves will witness increase by 14 percent in 2018.
The fund said in its updated report of Regional Economic Outlook:Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan that the Islamic Republic’s gross official reserves will reach $108.4 billion in 2018 and $127 billion in 2019.
According to IMF the figure was $95.1 billion in 2017, down from $104.2 billion in the preceding year.
Iran’s gross official reserves averagely amounted to $63.8 billion in 2000-2014 and increased to $115.7 billion in 2015, when Iran and the six world powers reached a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program, which came into force in 2016.
The IMF foresees 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, according to the IMF 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 international body predicted that Iran’s nominal GDP will reach $418.9 billion in 2018, meanwhile the figure for 2017 was $431.9 billion.
According to the IMF Iran’s nominal GDP averagely stood at $340.4 between 2000-2014, but gradually increased to $375.4 billion in 2015 and $404.4 billion in 2016.
The IMF foresees a 3.6 percent non-oil GDP growth for 2018 and 2.8 percent for 2019.
The figure was 4.4 percent in 2017, according to the report.
The country’s oil GDP also is predicted to grow by 4.6 percent in 2018 and 3.7 percent by 2019.
The IMF report said that saw a growth by 5.2 percent in last year, after experiencing a huge growth of 61.6 percent in 2016, after removal of the international sanctions against Iran’s oil sector.
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.
The report also sees a 23.8 percent increase in broad money growth this year, a slight increase from last year’s 23.5 percent.
The figure is to reach 20.2 percent in 2019, according to the IMF.