The country known in history as ancient Persia became the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 after the overthrow and expulsion of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from the country. Conservative religious leaders have created a theocratic system of government headed by a religious leader who plays the role of supreme authority. The country's economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas exports and is under heavy pressure from US sanctions. However, Iran's GDP has been growing in the last two years (2016 and 2017).
General information
The country's economy has practically moved to a post-industrial type. When the service sector is already the dominant sector of the economy (48.6% of Iran's GDP), but the industry still occupies a fairly large share in the economy (35.1%), the remaining 16.3% falls on agriculture. The economy is highly dependent on the export of hydrocarbon raw materials, while at the same time it has a significant and strong agricultural sector,industry and service. In terms of GDP, Iran is in 28th place in the world, in 2017 the figure was 409.3 US dollars.
The country has a large public sector, the Iranian government directly manages and owns hundreds of businesses and indirectly controls many companies and organizations. The key problems are corruption, price controls and an inefficient banking system. The country's economy has been issued with significant amounts of non-performing loans that do not contribute to the growth of the private sector.
Private business is represented mainly by small production workshops, farms, and some types of service enterprises. There are medium-sized construction firms and companies in the production of building materials (including cement), mining and metalworking. The country has a thriving sector of informal market activity, which is also rife with corruption.
Beginning of the economy
In the first years after the formation of the Islamic Republic, the development of the country's economy was greatly hampered by the war with Iraq. In the 90s, the transport infrastructure began to actively develop, the automotive industry and precision engineering became priority sectors. Privatization was actively carried out. All these measures gave a stimulus to the growth of the economy, as evidenced by the increased volume of Iran's GDP (in local currency), by the years of this period (according to purchasing power parity): 1980 - 6.6 billion dollars.rials, 1985 - 16.6 billion rials, 1990 - 34.5 billion rials, 2000 - 580.5 billion rials.
Growth in the economy continued due to increased exports of hydrocarbons. In the 2000s, oil refining and the development of alternative energy sources began to increase more actively.
In the last decade
Since the beginning of 2010, according to many experts, the country's economy is in the deepest crisis, as evidenced by statistics showing the decline in Iran's GDP growth over the years: in 2010 - 5.9%, in 2008 - 3%, 2012 - minus 6.6%. The key reasons are considered to be: the inefficient economic policy of President Ahmadinejad and international sanctions.
The situation improved somewhat with the coming to power of President Rouhani, the economy began to grow, especially in anticipation of the lifting of international sanctions in 2016. Thanks to their cancellation, Iran's GDP reached 412.3 billion US dollars. Restoration of sanctions by the Trump administration in 2018 will have a strong negative impact on this year's performance.
National currency
The country has adopted a floating exchange rate of the Iranian rial, which is regulated by the Central Bank of the country. Since 1932, the national currency has depreciated more than 2,000 times against the dollar.
This year, the accelerating devaluation of the national currency has led to the formation of a black exchange market. The course of illegal brokers differs several times from the official one. For example, as of September 2018, at the official exchange rate of the US dollar to the Iranian real was1:42 000, then on the black market -1:138 000.
