Economy - overview Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. President KHATAMI has continued to follow the market reform plans of former President RAFSANJANI and has indicated that he will pursue diversification of Iran's oil-reliant economy although he has made little progress toward that goal. The strong oil market in 1996 helped ease financial pressures on Iran and allowed for Tehran's timely debt service payments. Iran's financial situation tightened in 1997 and deteriorated further in 1998 because of lower oil prices. The subsequent rise in oil prices in 1999-2000 afforded Iran fiscal breathing room but does not solve Iran's structural economic problems, including the encouragement of foreign investment.

GDP purchasing power parity - $426 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 5% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $6,400 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 20%
industry: 24%
services: 56% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line 53% (1996 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices) 13% (2001 est.)

Labor force 18 million
note: shortage of skilled labor (1998)

Labor force - by occupation agriculture 30%, industry 25%, services 45% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate 14% (1999 est.)

Budget
revenues: $24 billion
expenditures: $22 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2001 est.)

Industries petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining and vegetable oil production), metal fabricating, armaments

Industrial production growth rate 5.5% (2001 nonoil est.)

Electricity - production 120.33 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source
fossil fuel: 94.24%
hydro: 5.76%
other: 0% (2000)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption 111.907 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports 0 kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports 0 kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products wheat, rice, other grains, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, cotton; dairy products, wool; caviar

Exports $27.4 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)

Exports - commodities petroleum 85%, carpets, fruits and nuts, iron and steel, chemicals

Exports - partners Japan 20.5%, Italy 7%, UAE 5.9%, France 4.7%, China 4.1% (1999)

Imports $17.2 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)

Imports - commodities industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods, foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military supplies

Imports - partners Germany 11%, Italy 8.3%, China 6.1%, Japan 5.3%, UAE 5% (1999)

Debt - external $7.3 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient $116.5 million (1995)

Currency Iranian rial (IRR)

Currency code IRR

Exchange rates from 1997 to 2001, Iran had a multi-exchange-rate system; one of these rates, the official floating exchange rate, by which most essential goods were imported, averaged 1,750 rials per US dollar; in March 2002, the multi-exchange-rate system was converged into one rate at about 7,900 rials per US dollar

Fiscal year 21 March - 20 March

NOTE: The information regarding Iran on this page is re-published from the 2002 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Iran Economy 2002 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Iran Economy 2002 should be addressed to the CIA.