Budget Chief Says Iran Will Aim For 8% Growth Despite Sanctions
Iran’s budget planning chief has said that the country will not tie the future of its economy to nuclear talks and will aim for 8 percent growth next year.
Iran’s budget planning chief has said that the country will not tie the future of its economy to nuclear talks and will aim for 8 percent growth next year.
Massoud Mirkazemi, the head of the Planning and Budget Organization, in tweets on Friday confirmed the news, while some economists told media in Iran they have serious doubt about achieving any growth under US sanctions.
Iran’s economic growth has been zero for the past 15 years, as international and US sanctions interrupted its oil exports and global banking relations. Although there were years when there was a positive rate of growth, overall the economy has stalled.
Mirkazemi claimed that non-oil exports increased by 40 percent since the beginning of the Iranian year in March.
Iran’s steel production fell by 15 percent in October, following smaller declines earlier in the year resulting from lack of electricity.
Iran’s method for generating revenues has been a relentless increase in liquidity, which has led to a 50-percent inflation rate and a ninefold drop in the value of the currency.
During a visit to the United Arab Emirates on November 24, only a few days before leaving for Vienna for nuclear negotiations with world powers, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani pledged on behalf of the Islamic Republic to begin a new chapter in relations with the UAE, Bloomberg reported.
On the same day, Bagheri described the meeting in Dubai with UAE Presidential Adviser Anwar Gargash as “friendly and cordial.”
Three days before Bagheri's visit, Iran and UAE foreign ministers had welcomed the improvement of ties during a telephone conversation. Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran attaches special importance to its ties with the UAE, particularly in the area of trade.
Iran has been using Dubai as a key outlet to international markets often referring to it as a one-stop-shop that could provide goods to Iran from a variety of Asian and other countries. Many Iranian merchants maintain offices in Dubai where they have residence and business permits. Many other Iranians own real estate in Dubai and foreign-based satellite televisions constantly advertise properties in the UAE Iranians can buy with little or no legal restrictions.
Reports coming from the UAE by the end of November indicated that the United Arab Emirates would soon send a delegation to Iran as part of efforts to improve ties with rival Tehran. Gargash told reporters that the UAE will keep its Arab neighbors and allies including the Saudis "in the picture" about the developments in bilateral ties with Iran.
Some observers believe that attempts toward a rapprochement with Iran are motivated by the general perception in the region, following US withdrawal from Afghanistan, that Washington has shifted its attention from the Middle East to East Asia, and players in the region may no longer be counting on the US to protect them against Iran's ambitions.
Noor News, a website close to the Iranian Supreme Council of National Security, has opined, that Iranian officials would welcome the upcoming visit by a high-ranking UAE delegation, which could be a positive step to reduce tensions. Meanwhile, the website said it is significant that the UAE has started this move while Iran is holding talks in Vienna. The gesture by the UAE would mean that Iran is not an isolated state.
Furthermore, UAE businesses may be showing their willingness to win the lion's share of Iran's foreign trade once US sanctions on Iran's international commerce and banking are lifted if the talks in Vienna prove successful.
Monday November 29 was the 50th anniversary of Iran capturing the three islands of Abu Musa, and the Lesser and Greater Tunb Islands in the Persian Gulf. While many Iranian media reports and social media accounts were cheerful about the anniversary, Turkey's national TV, TRT, on its Arabic Twitter account described the Islands as UAE islands occupied by Iran. This has annoyed Iranians as the dispute over the ownership of the three islands once again found its way into media. Iran at various points provided documents that indicate the islands were rented out to Arabs during the British colonial period.
Although the UAE has made no new claim about the islands, some Iranian media outlets and social media accounts have been talking about a Turkish conspiracy to damage the rapprochement that has been taking shape over the past weeks between Tehran and Abu Dhabi.
