TEHRAN, Oct. 14 (UPI) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said international efforts and sanctions pressures meant to drive the economy back into recession backfired.
With parliamentary approval of the multilateral nuclear agreement reached in July in hand, Rouhani said he’d lay out new economic policies next week.
Rouhani in September said about one-third of the national budget relies on revenue generated from oil. The budget for the current Iranian year, which started March 21, is the least dependent on oil revenue ever for the country, however.
Sanctions on Iranian oil exports and other parts of the economy resulted in an economic contraction of 5.8 percent in 2012-13. For fiscal year 2013-14, the World Bank estimates the Iranian economy contracted at an annual rate of 1.7 percent.
Iran entered the year by emerging from recession. Rouhani blamed the drop in crude oil prices and pressures from economic sanctions as part of a broader plot to cripple the Iranian economy.
“It backfired,” he said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during his regular press briefing there “are significant steps [on the nuclear research front] that Iran still must take before any sanctions relief will be offered.”
The Central Bank of Iran in March said sanctions relief would translate to about a 2 percent increase in growth, but likely not until the first quarter of 2016.
Rouhani in the past blamed his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for steering the economy in the wrong direction. Iran’s Central Bank said inflation went from a monthly rate of 45.1 percent when Rouhani was elected in June 2013 to around 15.5 percent. It aims for single-digit inflation by March 2017.
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