Economy of Iran

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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.

Iran's social and economic infrastructure has been improving steadily in many important aspects over the past two decades:

Although petroleum plays a central part in Iran's exports, Iran's non-oil exports hit the $12 Billion mark in 2005, as Iran continues to diversify its economy.

Iran's former president Khatami followed the market reform plans of former President Rafsanjani and indicated that he would pursue diversification of Iran's oil-reliant economy although he made little progress toward that goal. The strong oil market in 1996 helped ease financial pressures on Iran and allowed for Tehran's timely debt service payments. Iran's financial situation tightened in 1997 and deteriorated further in 1998 because of lower oil prices. The subsequent zoom 1999 afforded Iran fiscal breathing room but does not solve Iran's structural economic problems. Iran's current president Ahmadinejad has promised sweeping economic reform, including widespread social services and the elimination of corruption within all Ministries and State owned enterprises.

The Iranian government is attempting to diversify by investing revenues in other areas, including, car manufacturing, aerospace industries, consumer electronics, petrochemicals and nuclear technology.

Iran is expected to attract billions of dollars worth of foreign investment while creating a more favorable investment climate, such as reduced restrictions and duties on imports and the creation of free-trade zones like in Chabahar and the Island of Kish. Modern Iran has a solid middle class and a growing economy but continues to be affected by inflation and unemployment.

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History


Pre-revolutionary Iran's economic development was rapid. Traditionally an agricultural society, by the 1970s, Iran had achieved significant industrialization and economic modernization. However, the pace of growth had slowed dramatically by 1978, just before the Islamic revolution.

Since the revolution, growth has been rather slow. Iran's current difficulties can be traced to a combination of factors: Economic activity, severely disrupted by the revolution, was further depressed by the war with Iraq and by the decline of oil prices beginning in late 1985. After the war with Iraq ended, the situation began to improve: Iran's GDP grew for 2 years running, partly from an oil windfall in 1990, and there was a substantial increase in imports.

A decrease in oil revenues in 1991 and growing external debt, though, dampened optimism. In March 1989, Khomeini had approved Rafsanjani's 5-year plan for economic development, which allowed Iran to seek foreign loans. But mismanagement and inefficient bureaucracy, as well as political and ideological infighting, have hampered the formulation and execution of coherent economic policies.

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Centralisation vs. Privatisation

Immediately following Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War over 80% of Iran's economy came under the control of the government (down to 70% as of 2006) . This created numerous problems for Iran as previously internationally competitive companies , such as Iran Air or Iran Khodro, degraded into basic domestic companies that could barely function without massive government subsidies. In 2004, under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami a number of efforts were made to eliminate the role of the government: The stock exchange was re-launched allowing a mechanism by which to sell shares of government companies, elements of the constitution (article 44) which decreed that core-infrastructure should remain state run was eliminated , and private banks were launched.

Despite plans in 2004 to sell billions worth of state assets to the private sector at the fair market price, uptake was very slow. A common criticism of the privitisation effort by investors was the only local Iranian organisations that are capable of buying the large share blocks are themselves government owned. However, if rich Iranian expatriates were to invest a portion of their great wealth in Iran, they could buy shares of all State owned companies and as a consequence increase the growth rate in Iran substantially.

In 2005, Iran tried to sell $2.5bn of government assets, but only managed to offload less than 30 per cent. Ultimately, the slow uptake caused the privitisaiton effort to stall .

On July 3rd, 2006 Ayatollah Khamenei once again decreed a renewed effort to privatise the economy. This statement was in direct contrast to a previous statement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in May where he planned to further increase the role of the government in the economy and eliminate the stock exchange

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Agriculture

State investment has boosted agriculture. The liberalization of production and the improvement of packaging and marketing are helping to develop new export markets. Large-scale irrigation schemes thanks to the constructions of many dams throughout the country over the last decade, together with the wider production of export-based agricultural items such as 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.

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Current status

Official unemployment was estimated to be 11% for 2004. Although the right to private ownership is guaranteed in Iran, banks and some industries -- including the petroleum, transportation, utilities, and mining sectors -- were nationalized after the revolution. However, Iran has recently been pursuing some privatization. (Oil price and debt problems are no longer relevant.) The import-dependent industrial sector is further plagued by low labour productivity, lack of foreign exchange, and shortages of raw materials and spare parts.

Agriculture also has suffered from shortages of capital, raw materials, and equipment, as well as from the war with Iraq; in addition, a major area of dissension within the regime has been how to proceed with land reform.

Iran also continues to actively pursue ambitious regional goals in the auto-industry and beyond.

Government spending between 1992 and 2000, as percent of total budget:

Health: 6%
Education: 16%
Military: 8%

The table below represents the breakdown of service sector branches in the Iranian economy for 2001:

Trade, restaurants & hotels: 14.3%
Real estate & professional services: 13.9%
Public services: 11.4%
Transport, storage & communications: 9%
Financial & money institutions: 2.2%
Social, personal & household services: 2.5%
Source: Statistical Center of Iran

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Foreign trade and economic relations

Iran has been using the recent surge in oil prices to increase its trade in the past few years. The total volume of imports to Iran rose by 189% from $13.7 billion in 2000 to an estimated $39.7 billion in 2005.

Iran's major commercial partners are Germany, France, Italy, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. From 1950 until 1978, the United States was Iran's foremost economic and military partner; thus participating greatly in the modernization of its infrastructure and industry. After 1979 though, the United States ended its economic and diplomatic ties, banned Iranian oil imports and froze $12 billion of its assets. In 1996, the US Government passed the "Iran and Libya Sanctions Act" which prohibits (US) companies from investing and trading with Iran for more than $20 million annually, with the exception, since 2000, for items like pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, caviar or Persian rugs.

Since the mid 90's, Iran has increased its economic cooperation with other developing countries in "south-south integration" including Syria, India, China, South Africa, Cuba and Venezuela. Iran is also expanding its trade ties with Turkey and Pakistan and shares with its partners the common objective of the creation of a single economic market in West and Central Asia, like the European Union.

Since 2003, Iran has increasingly invested in the economy and reconstruction of its neighboring countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. In Dubai, UAE, it is estimated that Iranians expatriates are handling over 20% of its domestic economy with an equal proportion of its population. Money is invested in the local real estate market and import-export businesses geared towards providing Iran and other countries with the demanded consumer goods.

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مدير كل دفتر زنان و خانواده بهزيستى گفت: 12ميليون نفر در حاشيه شهرها زير خط فقر زندگى ميكنند، كه براى حمايت از آنها ايجاد كلينكهاى مددكارى اجتماعى در اين مناطق در دستور كار بهزيستى است.
به گزارش خبرنگار اجتماعى فارس، پرويز زارعى امروز در دومين همايش كلينيكهاى مددكارى اجتماعى در محل دانشگاه علوم بهزيستى كشور، افزود: به طور كلى آسيبهاى اجتماعى در ايران بين 10 تا 15 درصد در هر سال افزايش مى يابند و حدود 320 نقطه آسيب خيز را با همكارى وزارت رفاه شناسايى كردهايم كه در صورت ايجاد كلينيكهاى مددكارى اجتماعى در اين مناطق تعداد افراد تحت پوشش بهزيستى به 14 ميليون نفر ميرسد.
وى اضافه كرد: ايجاد كلينيكهاى مددكارى اجتماعى كه با فعاليت بخش خصوصى و با مجوز و نظارت بهزيستى فعاليت ميكنند، موجب افزايش مشاركت مردم و كاهش تصديگرى دولت ميشود و به منظور بالا رفتن بازده خدمات توانبخشى و تخصصى تر شدن فعاليتها، در قانون توسعه چهارم كشور نيز تاكيد شده است.
زارعى گفت: در زمان حاضر 95 كلينيك تخصصى مددكارى اجتماعى در كشور فعال است كه تا پايان امسال تعداد آنها به 160 مركز ميرسد، تاكنون 11 هزار و 229 پرونده مددجو در اين مراكز تشكيل شده است كه حدود 30 درصد آنها معادل 3502 نفر بازتوان شدهاند و به زندگى عادى برگشتهاند.
وى افزود: كلينكهاى مددكارى اجتماعى موظفند با بكارگيرى اصول بهداشت روان براى بهبود وضع مددجويان اقدام كنند همچنين با تعامل نزديك با فرمانداريها، شهرداريها، ادارات رفاه و ساير ادارات زمينه اشتغال، بازتوانى و رفع مشكل مددجويان را فراهم كنند.
مدير كل دفتر امور زنان و خانواده بهزيستى اضافه كرد: سازمان بهزيستى نيز امسال با افزايش يارانه هر پرونده مددجو در كلينيك هاى مددكارى اجتماعى از 40 هزار تومان به 100هزار تومان، افزايش مدت بازتوانى مددجويان از 6 ماه به 9 ماه و افزايش نرخ تعرفه خدمات آنها در اين زمينه اقدامات لازم را انجام داده است.
وى گفت: اعتبارات در اختيار بهزيستى براى حمايت از اين مددجويان امسال دو ميليارد تومان است كه رشد 300 درصدى نسبت به اعتبارات سال گذشته داشته است.
وى همچنين افزود: براى نظارت بر عملكرد اين كلينكها كه 419 پرسنل تخصصى در آنها مشغول به فعاليت هستند قراردادى را با انجمن علمى مددكارى اجتماعى ايران منعقد كردهايم و نظارت بهزيستى بر اين مراكز از طريق اين انجمن اعمال ميشود.

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معاون هزينه و خزانهدار کل کشور وضعيت منابع ارزی خزانه را بسيار مطلوب ارزيابی کرد و گفت: با احتساب منابع استانی، موجودی خزانه کل کشور حدود ۲۶هزارميليارد ريال است.

سيد ابوالفضل فاطمیزاده در گفتوگو با خبرگزاری مهر، وضعيت منابع خزانه کشور را مثبت ارزيابی کرد و گفت: ميزان منابع خزانهداری کل کشور به خصوص برای پرداخت منابع برای اجرای طرحهای عمرانی به ميزان کافی است و تمام طرحهای عمرانی اعم از طرحهای ملی و استانی مصوب از منابع خزانه کل کشور برخوردار هستند.
خزانهدار کل کشور موجودی خزانه در پنج ماه اول ابتدای سال جاری را ۱۵هزارميليارد ريال ذکر کرد و افزود: با احتساب منابع استانی، موجودی خزانه کل کشور به حدود ۲۶هزارميليارد ريال میرسد. وی وضعيت منابع ارزی خزانه را نيز بسيار مطلوب ارزيابی کرد و گفت: عملکرد خزانه بستگی به ميزان تعهدات و هزينههايی که در چارچوب مواد قانونی بايد دستگاههای اجرايی انجام دهند، دارد.
فاطمیزاده در خصوص ميزان پرداخت بدهیهای دولت به سيستم بانکی از محل خزانهداری کل کشور گفت: ۹۴۰ ميليون دلار معادل ۸ هزار و ۴۰۰ميليارد ريال مربوط به تعهدات بانک مرکزی از محل خزانهداری پرداخت میشود. وی همچنين با اشاره به اوراق مشارکت سررسيد شده در سال جاری و دستورات پيشبينی شده در اين خصوص گفت: اوراق مشارکت سررسيد شده، توسط خزانهداری پرداخت میشود. به گفته وی، بازپرداخت اصل اوراق مشارکت به ميزان ۴هزار و ۲۰ميليارد ريال در سال جاری پرداخت میشود. معاون هزينه و خزانهدار کل کشور بيان کرد: در قانون پيشبينی شده است که بابت بازپرداخت کل بدهیهای دولت به سيستم بانکی ۴۰۰ميليارد ريال پرداخت شود که در سال جاری تسويه خواهد شد.
وی در خصوص اينکه آيا شعار صرفهجويی دولت در هزينهها، تاثيری در منابع خزانه کل کشور داشته است، تصريح کرد: با دستورالعملها و تبصرههای قانون بودجه و تاکيدات رييسجمهوری هيات وزيران که به دستگاههای اجرايی ابلاغ شده، در بخشهايی که امکان صرفهجويی وجود دارد، صرفهجويیهای قابل ملاحظهای انجام شده، اما به دليل اينکه بخش اعظم هزينههای جاری کشور مربوط به پرداختهای پرسنل دستگاههای مختلف دولتی است، صرفهجويی قابل ملاحظهای در اين ارتباط صورت نگرفته است.
فاطمیزاده همچنين در خصوص اينکه چه زمانی مبالغ حاصل از واگذاریهای سهام شرکتهای دولتی به خزانه واريز میشود گفت: واگذاری بخش دولتی نيازمند يک فرآيند مناسب است که بايد به تدريج و در زمان مشخصی صورت گيرد.

وی واگذاری شرکتهای دولتی به بخش خصوصی را نيازمند ايجاد زير بناها و بسترهای لازم دانست و افزود: به دليل اينکه بازپرداخت اقساط سهامهای واگذار شده از محل سود سالانه شرکتها اخذ میشود بازگشت سرمايه از محل واگذاری اين شرکتها به خزانه نياز به يک زمان طولانی بين ۱۰ تا ۱۵ سال دارد تا مبالغ سهامها و دارايیهای واگذار شده به خزانه بازگردد. خزانهدار کل کشور با بيان اينکه کسری سال ۸۴ قابل ملاحظه نبود، تصريح کرد: بخشی از مطالبات وزارت آموزش و پرورش پرداخت نشده بود که در ارديبهشت ماه حدود ۵هزار و ۲۷۰ميليارد ريال از محل بودجه سال ۸۵ به آنها پرداخت شد. وی ادامه داد: با توجه به ارائه دو متمم بودجه توسط دولت به مجلس برای تصويب طرحهای عمرانی، مبالغ قابل ملاحظهای در اختيار دستگاههای اجرايی قرار گرفت. به گفته وی، بر اساس روال عادی و در حد منابعی که در اختيار خزانه کشور قرار دارد، برای اجرای بودجه مصوب برنامهريزی میشود. فاطمیزاده برنامه خزانهداری کل کشور را تداوم پرداختهای ضروری ذکر و اضافه کرد: در پنج ماه ابتدايی سال جاری نيز تمام ۲۶هزار و ۵۰۰ميليارد ريال مربوط به يارانه گندم در اختيار وزارت بازرگانی قرار گرفت. وی ادامه داد: با توجه به اينکه معمولا خريد گندم در نيمه اول سال صورت میگيرد، تمام اعتبارات اين بخش به دستگاه مباشر خريد گندم پرداخت شد.

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Made In Iran

Whether or not Iran is building nuclear weapons, its auto industry, the largest in the Middle East, is learning how to cope with privation - and planning for worse.


Earlier this year, as the rhetoric soared between Tehran and Washington over Iran's nuclear program, the country's two biggest carmakers, Iran Khodro and Saipa, did something executives at Ford, Toyota, and BMW probably haven't contemplated: They commissioned a study of how to run their businesses in a war zone. That may have been prudent.

Government-owned and military-linked, Iran's carmakers presume they are in Washington's cross hairs, and neither the White House nor President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shows any sign of backing down. "We now have three scenarios-green, yellow, and red," says Hadi Malekan, Saipa's general manager of business development, a portrait of the late Ayatollah Khomeini staring over his shoulder in an office on the baking plains west of Tehran. "We have shared these scenarios with 100 of our top managers to make them aware of what could happen."

Green represents normalized relations between Iran and the U.S. This assumes that embassies are reopened, that Iran is able to access the world's biggest economy - both its financial markets and its automakers - and that non-U.S. manufacturers would no longer have to tiptoe around U.S. sanctions. In other words, a return to the market freedoms Iran had before 1979, when the mullahs came to power. "We would like this situation very much," says Malekan, whose state-owned company claims about half of Iran's auto market.

Yellow is a variation of the status quo, in which Iran remains off limits for the U.S. and bilateral relations are nonexistent. "This scenario would effect the buying patterns of customers," says Malekan, "and there would be a problem with the sourcing of parts."

Red, of course, means war-"attack and invasion, even nuclear," Malekan suggests. "We might increase the volume on the commercial-vehicle side," he says, hinting at military clients. This scenario comes in shades: darker for devastated factories; a pinker hue for an international sanctions regime tighter than what already exists. "We would operate," he explains, "but we would decrease some of the lines because of the lack of customers."

Worst-case scenario planning
There's a similar sense of fatalism at Iran Khodro, the country's oldest and largest carmaker, best known for the Paykan, a discontinued knockoff of the Hillman Hunter, a 1960s British marquee formerly owned by Chrysler and Peugeot.

"We believe that a war could destroy everything," says Alireza Mirzaei, the company's deputy president, a 37-year-old veteran of the 1980s Iraq-Iran war that shaped so many Iranians of his generation. "We are a people [born] of war, and in a special situation maybe war is the only way. We hope for the best, but our plans also include the worst."

But even with such dismal scenarios looming, Malekan and Mirzaei both embrace an optimism typical of businesspeople anywhere. "So maybe they attack," Malekan says. "This would be a challenge for a short period of time, but then the company would go to a normal situation very soon."

Agrees Mirzaei: "We can work with European companies, even with Americans. Business is business, and they don't like to lose the benefit of the Iranian market, or the region. The past is past, and after five to six years, I believe we will be producing Chevrolets."

The largest automaker in the Mideast
This nation of 70 million people has much at stake. Its auto industry has boomed in recent years to become one of the biggest sectors outside of oil, employing 150,000 and accounting for about 4% of GDP. With nearly one million vehicles produced last year, as many as in Australia or Thailand, Iran boasts the largest car industry in the Middle East and Central Asia. "We're not talking small numbers here," says industry analyst Jonathan Poskitt of J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting. "There is a huge aspirational population under 40 in Iran, with money, and they want the same stuff as everyone else."

Iran was once a playground for U.S. automakers - the first car in Iran was a Ford (Charts), and GM (Charts) produced Chevy Novas, Buicks, and Cadillacs there in the 1970s with a Saipa subsidiary - but production of American marques ceased in 1981 after the embassy siege. Today the only U.S. models visible on Tehran's traffic-clogged streets are 1960s and '70s Chevys and Cadillacs, driven mostly by aging Iranians.

The revolution and the U.S. boycott hit the Iranian car market hard. The Islamic rulers nationalized the industry, and many foreign automakers went along with the boycott, not wanting to jeopardize their more valuable U.S. operations.

As a result, plants are dated, and parts, often imported through third countries, are expensive. Engineers complain that assembly lines often break down. The best evidence of this pariah status: the Paykan, a car regarded by Iranians as both a national treasure and a national joke. Some 40 years after they were introduced, Paykans (the name means "arrow" in Farsi) still ply Tehran's streets, accounting for about one car in three, belching pollution, lacking air conditioning, and burning gasoline at a high rate - the last not a big issue in a country where a liter of gas costs only 10 cents, one-third the price of a bottle of drinking water.

Iran Khodro finally phased out production last year, when the Paykan failed emissions tests. Giving up on the nation's best-selling car wasn't easy. But when Iran Khodro ignored the government's directive, Industry Minister Eshaq Jahangiri said he would go to the plant and shut it down personally. Says Iran Khodro's Mirzaei: "The Paykan lasted so long because the U.S. would not permit us to trade."

American overtures?
Despite the cold war between Washington and the world's first Islamic republic, Iranian auto executives say there have been nibbles from Detroit. Hossein Momeni, Saipa's director of strategic planning, says his company negotiated in the early 1990s with executives from Chrysler (Charts), who told their would-be partners that U.S.-Iranian relations had thawed sufficiently to warrant exploratory talks.

He says Chrysler wanted to introduce a version of the Plymouth Acclaim to Iran and that vehicles were even tested for Iranian conditions. "The negotiations proceeded to a semi-advanced stage based on representations by Chrysler that it was able to follow through despite the state of political relations," Momeni says.

A former Saipa executive who was part of its negotiating team and who asked not to be identified backs up that account, saying that Chrysler fronted negotiations through its Canadian division and that discreet meetings were held in Istanbul and Dubai, with the two sides agreeing on price and production details. The talks petered out, and after George W. Bush made his "Axis of Evil" speech, lumping Iran with North Korea and Iraq, chances of rapprochement became as remote as ever.

Chrysler denies there were any such talks. "Neither Chrysler nor any of its subsidiaries has engaged in, or authorized anyone else to engage in, any meetings or negotiations with any state-owned or other automobile companies in Iran," says DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Ursula Mertzig-Stein.

Washington's largely untested sanctions policy on Iran can seem vague, and it's unclear whether Chrysler might have broken any laws if it was negotiating with Saipa. "It's usually okay to talk," says U.S. Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise, but "contracts contingent upon lifting sanctions or getting a license are verboten."

There are also accidents of history. Japan's Mazda, one-third-owned by Ford, has a joint venture with Iran's private Bahman group to make a version of the Mazda 323, and Chrysler parent DaimlerChrysler has licensed assembly of an E-class Mercedes-Benz.

The old company town
By world standards the Iranian car industry is primitive, much of its technology a holdover from the pre-Ayatollah 1970s. Iran Khodro's 25,000 employees toil in rundown plants at a massive complex that neighbors the Saipa facility. They make the Paykan's replacement, the Samand, as well as several Peugeot marques.

The plant is a city within a city, with its own postal code, train station, and apartment blocks. Street corners are decorated with Koranic exhortations that good Muslims work hard for the revolution. Mullahs in full clerical garb are common at the complex, alongside the Basij militia, Iran's religious police, who keep the faithful in order.

Production at both plants was recently upgraded to three shifts, running at 95% capacity and breaking only for religious holidays and the June 4 anniversary of Khomeini's 1989 death.

Distribution remains tricky. At Kerman Automotive, a small, privately owned Iranian carmaker that has joint venture deals with Volkswagen and China's Chery Automobile, it takes about a month for customers to get cars delivered. But, says Kerman vice chairman Bahram Shariat, that's a big improvement over when he was at state-owned Saipa, where it could take up to two years.

"A lot of foreign companies were scared of coming to Iran for a long time because they thought the U.S. could hurt their business in other countries," says Saipa's Momeni. If that's the case, at least some European and Korean automakers have gotten over such skittishness.

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International carmakers ease in

With Iran awash in cash, thanks to soaring oil prices, international giants such as PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault (Charts), Kia, Hyundai (Charts), and Fiat (Charts) have teamed with Saipa, Iran Khodro, Kerman, and Bahman, often licensing models for local production to avoid direct investment in Iran-and having to answer to Washington. "The Europeans and Koreans are meeting the pent-up demand," Momeni says, adding that their success is Detroit's loss.

But while most of them are showing annual sales growth of 30% to 40%, and their foreign marques are a status symbol to many Iranians, a corporate presence in Iran isn't something foreign carmakers want to talk about. Iran Khodro's Samand is based on a Peugeot 405 platform. It is regarded as Iran's new national car, with more than 300,000 cramming Iran's roads since its introduction last year.

Peugeot has a score of technical staff supervising production. It's a similar story at Saipa, where Momeni says PSA's Xantia model is "top of its class and has experienced growth in the double-digit range. We are now discussing further areas of cooperation." But neither is a success Peugeot wants to claim. Says PSA Peugeot Citroën director of communications Isabelle Cros: "Our group is not implanted, industrially or commercially, in Iran."

Momeni says Iran carmakers would like to wean themselves from foreign cooperation. After decades of government subsidies, Iran Khodro and Saipa are in better shape, adjusting as Tehran dismantles a heavy tariff regime to allow more foreign imports.

Iran Khodro turned a profit of $405 million in 2004, its last audited year, and was confident enough to open negotiations to buy Britain's struggling MG Rover group last year. The talks went nowhere, but now there are plans to export to Venezuela, Belarus, India, and China.

Mirzaei of Iran Khodro laments that Iran's stagnation as an auto power contrasts with the rise of Korea. "In the 1970s, Koreans regarded us as a developing-world model for their own new car industry," he says. "Now we are following them. If we did not have these problems with the U.S., we could have a car industry at least like Korea's, and we could all do well-the U.S. and Iran."

[Rasputin]

ايران هشتادمين اقتصاد آزاد جهان و امارات آزادترين اقتصاد در ميان كشورهاي عرب است.

به گزارش ايسنا، در گزارش سال جاري "آزادي اقتصادي جهان" امارات در ميان كشورهاي عرب جهان به عنوان آزادترين اقتصاد معرفي شده است و اين در حالي است كه رتبه جهاني اين كشور 12 عنوان شده است.

بنابراين گزارش، كويت، عمان و بحرين از ديگر اقتصادهاي آزاد جهان عرب هستند و از اين لحاظ مكانهاي سوم تا پنجم را به خود اختصاص دادهاند.

در ليست جهاني اين گزارش كويت و عمان در مكان بيست و چهارم جهان و بحرين در مكان چهلم جهان قرار دارند. اردن در اين ليست كه 130 كشور را شامل ميشود در مكان 48 قرار دارد و ايران در اين ليست به عنوان هشتادمين اقتصاد آزاد جهان مطرح شده است.

هنگكنگ عنوان آزادترين اقتصاد جهان را از آن خود كرده است و سنگاپور پس از آن در مكان دوم جاي گرفته است. نيوزلند، سوئيس و آمريكا نيز به طور مشترك در مكان سوم واقع شدهاند.

كشورهاي آفريقايي، آمريكاي لاتين و جمهوريهاي كمونيستي سابق از بستهترين اقتصادهاي جهان هستند و زيمباوه در مكان يكصد و سيم جهان جاي خشك كرده است.