NCRI – Speaking about different scenarios for Iran’s economic growth, the senior economic advisor to Iranian regime’s President has said that Iran’s gross domestic product has started its downtrend since 2007, reaching a negative growth in 2012.
Masoud Nili emphasized that these years are coincided with the unprecedented increase in oil revenues so that between 2008 and 2011, Iran’s foreign exchange revenues reached 535 billion dollars, based on 2015 fixed prices. Thus, the decreased GDP growth has not been due to lack of resources.
Rouhani’s advisor has not explained, however, how Iran was faced with a long-term recession and even a negative growth despite hundreds of billion dollars of unprecedented oil revenues.
Masoud Nili then added that the most important question now is how Iran’s economic growth will be from 2017 onwards.
He implicitly called the prospect of Iran’s economic growth ‘unfavorable’ and said that with a GDP growth one percent and an economic growth of 2 -2.5 percent, the country will be faced with an economic slowdown similar to that of 2008-2012, which, as Masoud Nili points out, will cause problems for the Iranian regime.
Masoud Nili had previously acknowledged that ”if country’s 2016 economic growth fails to reach at least six percent, Iran’s economic situation will not improve in the next couple of years.” He also recently acknowledged that Iran’s economic growth is not possible with sharply reduce oil revenues.
According to the Sixth Development Program recently approved by the Iranian regime’s parliament, Iran’s economy will need 325 billion dollars in foreign investment in the next five years.