But that isn’t what the IMF said.
Last month, the IMF issued its annual publication, World Economic Outlook, and showed Iran with one of the most stagnant economies in the world. (See Iran Times of last week, page one.)
The IMF said Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by only 0.1 percent in 2009 and 1.0 percent in 2010. And it forecast growth this year at zero.
But the Mehr news agency implied that Dominique Given, the deputy head of the IMF Middle East and Central Asian Department, said he would change those numbers during a visit to Tehran this week.
Actually, Given only said that IMF statistics are revised as new information becomes available.
The one quote from Given that Mehr published was: “By receiving new statistics, especially in the industry and agricultural sectors, we will adjust our forecasts.” He didn’t say there was anything wrong with the published numbers.
Economy Minister Shams-eddin Hossaini, meanwhile, called the IMF figures “illogical and surreal.”
He said, “The figures released by the IMF are mostly based on the assumption that the West’s measures against Iran have impacted our economy.” But the IMF said no such thing. Yet, Hossaini’s comments will likely give Iranians the impression that the IMF is saying the sanctions are hurting Iran.
Hossaini said the proof that the Iranian economy is doing quite well comes from the fact that the Tehran Stock Exchange average has soared 86 percent in recent months while the country’s non-oil exports jumped 24 percent last year.
The Islamic Republic has censored news of the IMF data. Journalists who recognize the importance of the news have finagled to get around the censors. For example, they have quoted Iranian officials saying the statistics are wrong. And, in the Mehr story cited above, Mehr implied the IMF would change the numbers—which gave Mehr the opportunity to tell its readers what the numbers were. These are common techniques that have been used by Persian journalists for decades to evade censors. The techniques date back long before the 1979 revolution.