The chief banker cited figures released by the CBI’s Economic Accounts Department showing that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.9 percent with oil and by 2.9 percent without oil in the quarter to December 20.

“Thus, one can definitely announce the transition of the Iranian economy from the difficult period of sanctions and the recession associated with it to a period of renewed economic growth,” said Hemmati.

Iran has been hit hard by a series of unprecedented US sanctions since the middle of 2018 when a former government in Washington decided to pull out of an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

Sanctions have largely targeted Iran’s exports of crude as its main source of earning hard currency. However, the bans have triggered a sweeping reform program in the Iranian economy as the government continues to diversify its revenues away from oil by encouraging increased activity in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors.

Hemmati hailed the fact that Iran had recorded two-quarters of economic growth at a time many countries are grappling with a deep recession.

He said the latest CBI data on GDP growth and the performance of various sectors of the economy during the quarter to late December will be published next week.

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The third straight quarter of declines knocked the size of real gross domestic product (GDP) to decade-low levels, wiping out the benefits brought by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo ‘s ‘Abenomics’ stimulus policies deployed in late 2012, Reuters reported.

While the economy is emerging from the doldrums after lockdowns were lifted in late May, many analysts expect any rebound in the current quarter to be modest as a renewed rise in infections keep consumers’ purse-strings tight.

“The big decline can be explained by the decrease in consumption and exports,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

“I expect growth to turn positive in the July-September quarter. But globally, the rebound is sluggish everywhere except for China.”

The world’s third-largest economy shrank an annualized 27.8 percent in April-June, government data showed on Monday, marking the biggest decline since comparable data became available in 1980 and slightly bigger than a median market forecast for a 27.2 percent drop.

While the contraction was smaller than a 32.9 percent decrease in the United States, it was much bigger than a 17.8 percent fall Japan suffered in the first quarter of 2009, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers jolted global financial markets.

The size of Japan’s real GDP shrank to 485 trillion yen, the lowest since April-June 2011 when Japan was still suffering from two decades of deflation and economic stagnation.

The main culprit behind the dismal reading was private consumption, which plunged a record 8.2 percent as lock-down measures to prevent the spread of the virus kept consumers at home.

External demand — or exports minus imports — shaved a record 3.0 percentage point off GDP, as overseas shipments plunged 18.5 percent, with auto exports hit particularly hard.

Falling global vehicle sales have hurt automakers like Mazda Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., among the biggest drivers of Japan’s economy, and their parts suppliers.

Capital expenditure declined 1.5 percent in the second quarter, less than a median market forecast for a 4.2 percent fall, as solid software investment made up for weak spending in other sectors.

Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura conceded the GDP readings were ‘pretty severe’, but pointed to some bright spots such as a recent pickup in consumption.

“We hope to do our utmost to push Japan’s economy, which likely bottomed out in April and May, back to a recovery path driven by domestic demand,” he told a news conference.

Japan has deployed massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to cushion the blow from the pandemic, which hit an economy already reeling from last year’s sales tax hike and the US-China trade war.

While the economy has re-opened after the government lifted the state of emergency measures in late May, a worrying resurgence in infections clouds the outlook for business and household spending.

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Tough curbs within the city-state to contain the coronavirus pandemic took a heavy toll on the economy, which is largely dependent on global trade and tourism, AFP reported.

Gross domestic product fell 42.9 percent in the three months to June from the previous quarter, worse than the government’s advance estimate of a 41.2-percent contraction released last month based on two months of data, the Trade Ministry said.

On-year, the economy shrank 13.2 percent in April-June, more than the initial estimate of 12.6 percent.

It marked the second consecutive quarter of contraction, meaning the city state has entered a recession for the first time since 2009, when it was battered by the global financial crisis.

Trade-dependent Singapore is one of the first countries to report growth data for the period when many nations entered lockdowns, and offers an ominous warning of the devastation being wrought on the global economy.

The worse-than-estimated figures will also ring alarm bells for other Asian economies reliant on trade — typically, Singapore is hit first before ripples spread across the region.

For the full year, the government said it expects the economy to contract between 5.0 and 7.0 percent, compared with an earlier forecast of between 4.0 and 7.0 percent, but added the road to recovery remains rough.

“Many of Singapore’s key final demand markets saw worse-than- projected economic disruptions in the second quarter,” the Trade Ministry said in a statement.

These markets “are also expected to experience a more gradual pace of recovery in the second half of 2020 due to the threat of localized outbreaks and the continued need for restriction measures to contain such outbreaks as they occur,” it added.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a National Day message on Sunday warned that ‘the crisis is far from over’ as many countries have seen a resurgence of cases after initially managing to control the situation.

Singapore initially kept the virus in check through a strict regime of testing and contact-tracing, only for serious outbreaks to later sweep through crowded dormitories housing low-paid migrant workers.

It has reported more than 55,000 infections so far and 27 deaths.

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A report by the European Union’s statistics agency published a report that showed the trade zone’s GDP contracted by 12.1 percent during the three months through June, which is equivalent to 40.3 percent annualized, AP reported.

That exceeded the US economy’s equivalent 32.9 percent contraction, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While most countries report GDP changes between quarters, the US extrapolates GDP over a full year, which makes it easier to compare GDP in different time periods.

The contraction marks the greatest drop in the eurozone’s GDP since records began in 1995. The largest drops were concentrated in April and May during the most severe lockdown measures in some countries.

The number accounts for the 19-country eurozone and not the European Union as a whole, though. The wider European Union’s GDP shrank 11.9 percent.

Members who use the Euro had varying levels of contraction. Italy suffered the hardest drop at 18.5 percent during the three month period. France and Portugal also endured steep declines.

Germany, the largest of the countries that use the euro, went through a 10.1 percent decline, the biggest since records started in 1970.

The loss of GDP is a direct effect of the lockdown measures enforced during the coronavirus pandemic, but European consumers and businesses appear to be gaining confidence, supported by aggressive stimulus and job-protection schemes.

Last week, European leaders agreed on a €750 billion ($884.06 billion) recovery fund, with the European Central Bank additionally printing €1.35 trillion ($1.591 trillion) to add to the economy.

“The business in Europe has been and currently is stronger than in the US,” Bjørn Gulden, chief executive of German sports-goods maker Puma SE, told reporters. In the US, demand has varied widely from state to state, he said.

But the outlook is for a long and uncertain climb back to pre-virus levels that could take until 2022 or longer. Company forecasts for the rest of the year assumed that there is not a renewed outbreak of COVID-19.

“All the growth in GDP seen in the 2010-2019 decade has been wiped out in five months,” said Marc Ostwald, chief economist at ADM Investor Services International. In Italy’s case, economists said it wiped out about 30 years of growth.

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“A European race to see who will restart tourism first will lead to unacceptable risks,” Foreign Minister of Germany told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Maas referred to the high infection rate in the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl, where many German tourists are believed to have been infected.

“We have already experienced what an infection cluster in a popular holiday resort can do in the home countries of tourists. This must not happen again,” he said, Reuters reported.

Hundreds of tourists from countries including Germany, Norway, and Iceland are believed to have been infected in Ischgl, which is near the point where Austria, Switzerland, and Italy meet and is renowned for its party scene.

The local authorities have been widely accused of responding too slowly as it is now clear the virus found a breeding ground in crowded apres-ski bars at various resorts and spread in Ischgl for a month before it was quarantined on March 13.

Austrian authorities lifted coronavirus quarantines this week at three of the country’s top ski resorts, including Ischgl, removing the restrictions days before they were due to expire.

The country has suggested a staggered resumption of tourism, initially allowing German visitors in, rather than a full restart of the European Union’s suspended open-border pact.

Maas said Europe needs to agree on common criteria for a way back to the freedom of travel “as quickly as possible, but as responsibly as necessary”.

“We must not let the hard-won successes of the last few weeks be ruined,” said Maas, adding that otherwise there would be travel restrictions for much longer.

Meanwhile, the German Travel Association (DRV) said 60% of travel agencies and tour operators see themselves directly threatened by insolvency, a survey of member companies published in the Bild am Sonntag showed.

According to the survey, every fifth company has already laid-off employees, and 80% have applied for state aid.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati announced that Iran’s economy is getting out of recession, while major economic indices are experiencing stability.

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IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

TEHRAN – Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Farhad Dejpasand said that his country would get out of recession in the near future.

Answering a question about Iran’s exit from recession next year Farhad Dejpasand said, “I have to congratulate all the economic activists, policy-makers, and also decision-makers who despite all the pressure coming from some countries, are now moving in the way to get out of the recession.”

“The World Bank has also acknowledged that we will get out of recession in the near future,” the Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance added in an interview with Iran Press.

“I have stated that the achievement is due to all the policies the government has taken to lead liquidity to production, management of resources and production capacity,” he said.

According to Dejpasand, a set of policies and actions of the government and the private sector will help Iran to get out of recession soon.

In its latest report, the World Bank (WB) forecast that Iran’s economy will move out of a downturn in 2020. According to the WB report, Iran can experience its positive economic growth next year after the recent sanctions imposed against the country.

Meanwhile yesterday the Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Reza Rahmani has said Iran is currently ranked 10th in the world in terms of steel production.

“We were in 13th place, but we have improved our ranking by 3 places to become the 10th largest producer of steel in the world. Our world ranking in steel production has improved”.

Reza Rahmani added: “Our steel production is increasing and this year we are on course to produce 28 million tons of steel”, the high ranking official highlighted.

Iran to Exit From Recession Soon

Rahmani stated the production of steel, copper, and aluminium are all set to increase during next year.

Meanwhile Minister of Health and Medical Education stated that Iran’s economy is in a state of war.

Referring to the unjust sanctions of the United States, especially in the field of healthcare, Minister of Health and Medical Education Saeed Namaki said: “Our economy is in a state of war. In this situation, perhaps many people do not know how we procure medicine and they also don’t know how much we are trying not to let a surgery room gets out of service and we would not be ashamed.”

Namaki was speaking in the opening ceremony of the new academic year at Tehran University which was held with the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mansour Gholami and a group of university figures and students according to Iran Press.

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