That Iran’s economy is set to struggle in 2019 due to tighter US sanctions is no surprise, the only question is how bad will it be? The IMF has now weighed in on that issue with the release of its Regional Economic Outlook (REO), where it expects 2018’s economic contraction of 3.9% to worsen to 6% this year. And those calculations were made before the US decided last week to tighten sanctions on Iranian oil exports (MEES, 26 April).

The IMF has forecast a rise in consumer prices of 37.2% in 2019 up from 31.2% in 2018, but this inflation rate could spike to 50% after the cancellation of waivers, the IMF’s Middle East director Jihad Azour says. (CONTINUED - 381 WORDS)