| 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. Relatively high
oil prices in recent years have enabled Iran to amass some
$15 billion in foreign exchange reserves, but have not solved
Iran's structural economic problems, including high unemployment
and inflation. |
| GDP |
purchasing
power parity - $458.3 billion (2002 est.) |
| GDP - real
growth rate |
7.6% (2002
est.) |
| GDP - per
capita |
purchasing
power parity - $6,800 (2002 est.) |
| GDP - composition
by sector |
agriculture:
19%
industry: 26%
services: 55% (2002 est.) |
| Population
below poverty line |
40% (2002
est.) |
| Inflation
rate (consumer prices) |
15.3% (2002
est.) |
| Labor force |
21 million
note: shortage of skilled labor (1998) |
| Labor force
- by occupation |
agriculture
30%, industry 25%, services 45% (2001 est.) |
| Unemployment
rate |
16.3% (2003
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% excluding
oil (2001 est.) |
