Jahangir Hails Growing Economy Despite All Pressures

IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Saturday that the Iranian economy grew last year despite all the pressures on the country.

Speaking during a meeting with Minister of Economy Farhad Dejpasand and his deputies in Tehran, Jahangiri referred to pressure of US sanctions on the country. However, he noted that the inflation rate became decreasing in the third quarter of the last Iranian calendar year.

He said that the country’s economic growth became positive both including oil and excluding oil during the third quarter of the year, so that it witnessed a 3.3% economic growth excluding oil and a 1.3% economic growth including oil revenue.

The country’s economic growth over the first three quarters of the past Iranian year was positive excluding oil and negative including oil, the vice-president said.

He said that some 470,000 jobs were created in Iran over the past year so that the country’s unemployment rate experienced a rise during the period.

While the Iranian officials hoped a more reduced inflation rate, a better economic growth and an improved unemployment rate as well as foreign investment in the new year, the country faced the coronavirus disease outbreak which is globally regarded as an important concern, Jahangiri said.

It is said that the post-coronavirus world will be much different from the pre-coronavirus world, the official said, noting that the phenomenon will most probably leave decisive impacts on the world order.

Jahangiri even cited some European and American officials as saying that the coronavirus outbreak has been the greatest challenge facing the human kind after the World War II.

The pandemic is any way regarding as the greatest global challenge which everyone is predicting leading to serious economic recession in world economies, the vice-president said.

He also emphasized that the more transparent the performance of the companies and the more they are available to the public, the more efficient they will be.

Jahniri noted that as much as managers are concerned about top managers, they are 10 times more likely to be concerned by public opinion because they know everyone has a fair judgment about their management.

He said that state-owned companies are a large group whose assets are several times the budget of the country, adding that the Ministry of Economy is doing good work for state-owned companies to make a big difference.

“2,700 thousand billion tomans are their assets. When these companies are the assets of the government, it means that every year they must give a benefit to the government so that the government spends in the budget,” Jahangiri added.