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.
The Rial is Iran's official currency.
Iran's economic infrastructure has been improving steadily over the past two decades.
The current administration continues to follow the market reform plans of the previous one and indicated that it will diversify Iran's oil-reliant economy. It is attempting to do this by investing revenues in areas like automobile manufacturing, aerospace industries, consumer electronics, petrochemicals and nuclear technology.
Iran also expects to attract billions of dollars of foreign investment by creating a more favorable investment climate, such as reduced restrictions and duties on imports, and free-trade zones like in Chabahar and the island of Kish.
Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer, as it exports 3.3 million (2003 estimate) barrels of oil per day; moreover, it holds 10% of the world's confirmed oil reserves. Iran also has the world's second largest natural gas reserves (after Russia).
The services sector has seen the greatest long-term growth in terms of its share of GDP, but the sector remains volatile. State investment has boosted agriculture with the liberalization of production and the improvement of packaging and marketing helping to develop new export markets. Thanks to the construction of many dams throughout the country in recent years, large-scale irrigation schemes, and the wider production of export-based agricultural items like dates, flowers, and pistachios, produced the fastest economic growth of any sector in Iran over much of the 1990s. Although successive years of severe drought in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 have held back output growth substantially, agriculture remains one of the largest employers, accounting for 22% of all jobs according to the 1991 census.
Iran has also developed a biotechnology, nanotechnology, and pharmaceuticals industry. For energy, it currently relies on conventional methods, but as of March 2006, uranium refinement, the last major hurdle to developing nuclear power, has taken place.
Iran's major commercial partners are Germany, France, Italy, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. Since the late 1990's, Iran has increased its economic cooperation with other developing countries, including Syria, India, Cuba, Venezuela, and South Africa. Iran is also expanding its trade ties with Turkey and Pakistan and shares with its partners the common goal of creating a single economic market in West and Central Asia, much like the European Union.
Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act
The law is comprised of 25 Articles and 11 Notes and has been approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly in its session. read more
Centeral Bank of Iran
"Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran" is the central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) was established in 1960 (1339 solar year). As stated in the Monetary and Banking Act of Iran (MBAI), CBI is responsible for the design and implementation of the monetary and credit policies with due regard to the general economic policy of the country. read more
Banks
List of different banks in Iran. read more
Natural Gas Economy
According to the Oil and Gas Journal (01/2006), Iran contained an estimated 970 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in proven natural gas reserves, making it the world's second largest reserves and surpassed only by Russia. Around 62 percent of Iranian natural gas reserves are located in non-associated fields and have not been developed. According to Global Insight, major non-associated gas fields include: South Pars (280-500 Tcf of gas reserves), North Pars (50 Tcf) and Kangan-Nar (23.7 Tcf). In 2005, according to provisional Cedigas data, Iran had marketed production of 3.5 Tcf of natural gas and consumed 3.6 Tcf of gas. read more
Oil Economy
According to the Oil and Gas Journal, as of January 1, 2006, Iran held 132.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. This figure, which includes recent discoveries in the Kushk and Hosseineih fields of Khuzestan province, means Iran holds roughly 10 percent of the world's total proven reserves. The vast majority of Iran's crude oil reserves are located in giant onshore fields in the southwestern Khuzestan region near the Iraqi border. Overall, Iran has 40 producing fields – 27 onshore and 13 offshore (see table below for major fields). Iran's crude oil is generally medium in sulfur and in the 28°-35° API range. read more