Economy

PayvandNews – The Islamic Republic’s Interior Minister has expressed concern about unemployment; especially in those cities where he says about 60% of the workforce is unemployed.   In an interview with Iran Students News Agency, ISNA, the minister noted, “Social harms are more acute in areas where the unemployment rate is high”. Read related report (in Persian) by Ghanoon daily In the interview he …

Al-Monitor – Hope for Iran’s long-overdue accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) appears to have disappeared. The July 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Tehran and six world powers, has done little to bring about a consensus within the organization to proceed with Iran’s membership bid. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, the Iranian government has little to show in terms of …

PayvandNews – The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced that the inflation rate for the 12-month period ended on the last day of the sixth Iranian calendar month of Shahrivar (September 22) compared to the same period in the previous year hit 9.9 percent, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday. cartoon by Javad Takjou, Etemad daily It is while the Statistical Center of …

Al-monitor – Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the most experienced minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran, has yet again been entrusted with one of the most challenging portfolios in the Hassan Rouhani administration: the Ministry of Petroleum (MoP). Experts agree that in the past four years, Zanganeh and his team have managed to rehabilitate the petroleum sector after the damaging years under …

PayvandNews – A new IranPoll survey conducted in August finds that Iranians generally support globalization, want to see economic reform inside Iran, and want to improve their economic ties with Europe in particular. They are concerned, however, that U.S. pressure will cause European companies to think twice about doing business in Iran. The results show an Iranian public that seems increasingly optimistic about …

PayvandNews – Nasser Meshkin Azarian took a careful nibble, letting the salty, grainy texture roll across his tongue. He smiled and washed it down with a sip of cool water. “I give it an 82 or 83” out of 100, Azarian said. At the retail price of $80 an ounce in Iran, it was an expensive bite. But beluga caviar is …

Al-Monitor – With 33.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, Iran has the largest conventional gas reservesin the world. Along with its vast oil reserves, it also has sizable, non-associated conventional gas resources that are being developed aggressively. With regard to exports, however, natural gas has never matched the significance of oil in Iran. Nonetheless, Tehran has boosted gas production tremendously in the past few years, despite sanctions …

PayvandNews – A member of European Central Bank’s Executive Board and an auditor in PricewaterhouseCoopers firm says transparency is still the major obstacle to international companies’ cooperation with Iran. CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2016 During a meeting between private sector activists and representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers firm (PwC) on Monday in Tehran, Jens Ronnberg said that the main obstacle which prevents international companies …

PayvandNews – Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG, has signed a contract with Iran Khodro to distribute its trucks in the Middle Eastern country, the German automaker has said.  The deal signed on Tuesday includes creating a joint venture to provide sales and after-sale services in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported. Another deal will be signed next month …

PayvandNews – The number of international tourist arrivals to Iran stood at 4.9 million in 2016, falling 5.6 percent from a year earlier and showing the first decline since 2013, according to the latest UNWTO Tourism Highlights report released on August 15. Tourist arrivals in the country jumped from 2.938 million in 2010 to 4.967 million in 2014 and 5.237 million …