📋Overview

Iran's economy is the largest in the Middle East by purchasing power parity, with a real GDP of $1.486 trillion (2024 est., in 2021 dollars), though its official exchange-rate GDP is far smaller at $436.9 billion (2024 est.). The economy is traditionally state-controlled, built around vast hydrocarbon reserves, and has been severely distorted by decades of international sanctions, exchange-rate depreciation, and investor uncertainty. Inflation remains extreme — 44.6% in 2023 and 32.5% in 2024 — and is projected at 42.2% in 2025 (World Bank). Official GDP growth was positive at 3–5% in 2022–2024 but the World Bank estimates a contraction of -2.8% in 2025. Real GDP per capita stands at roughly $16,200 (PPP, 2024 est.) but only $3,924 at current exchange rates (World Bank, 2025), reflecting a massive gap between domestic purchasing power and international valuation. Poverty is increasing. The labour force numbers 28.6 million, unemployment sits at 9.2% (2024 est.), and youth unemployment reaches 22.8% overall, with female youth unemployment at 35.5%. The economy's sectoral composition in 2024 is services (47.9%), industry (36.4%), and agriculture (13%). The official exchange rate has been fixed at 42,000 rials per US dollar since at least 2019, a figure widely divergent from market rates, compounding the inflation and investment distortions.

📈Economy

Iran's economy rests on three pillars: hydrocarbons, a sizeable agricultural base, and a broad state-directed services sector. It holds the world's second-largest proven natural gas reserves (33.987 trillion cubic metres, 2021 est.) and fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves (208.6 billion barrels, 2021 est.), producing 4.112 million barrels of petroleum per day and 265 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2023. Domestic energy consumption is very high — Iran consumes 2.415 million bbl/day of refined petroleum and 252 billion cubic metres of gas — and transmission losses in electricity alone amount to 37.9 billion kWh per year, pointing to structural inefficiency. The industrial sector encompasses petroleum, petrochemicals, gas, fertilisers, textiles, cement, food processing, and metal fabrication, as well as armaments. Agriculture produces wheat, sugarcane, milk, sugar beets, rice, tomatoes, barley, potatoes, oranges, and apples. Public finances are strained: a 2019 budget showed revenues of $60.7 billion against expenditures of $90.2 billion, and external debt is relatively low at $6.76 billion (2023 est.), reflecting the country's effective exclusion from global capital markets rather than fiscal strength. Income inequality is moderate by regional standards, with a Gini coefficient of 35.9 (2023 est.) and the top 10% of households earning 28.2% of income.

📤Exports

📥Imports

💪Strengths

🔗Dependencies

⚖Trade impact

Iran's trade position is paradoxical: it holds enormous energy wealth yet operates under severe constraints that reshape global commodity flows around it. On the export side, Iran is a critical marginal supplier of crude oil and natural gas whose volumes on world markets are directly governed by the intensity of US-led sanctions. When Iranian oil is suppressed, global prices are higher; when Iranian barrels re-enter (as they have gradually done via China), they exert downward pressure. China is Iran's dominant trade partner — absorbing 35% of exports and supplying 34% of imports in 2023 — making the bilateral relationship a strategic lifeline. Iran supplies China with discounted sanctioned crude, and China supplies Iran with manufactured goods and technology that Iran cannot source from the West. This relationship partly insulates both countries from Western economic pressure. Turkey, Iran's second-largest export market at 16%, acts as a commercial bridge to European markets for Iranian goods including plastics and metals, while also supplying 11% of Iran's imports. The UAE, supplying 20% of Iranian imports in 2023, functions as the premier re-export and sanctions-circumvention hub, routing goods from Western and Asian suppliers into Iran. Brazil's 8% import share reflects Iran's substantial grain and oilseed needs, making Iran a non-trivial buyer in global soy and corn markets. Iran's natural gas exports (14.7 billion cubic metres in 2023) flow primarily to Turkey and Iraq, giving it leverage over regional energy security. Iran also exports electricity (5.7 billion kWh in 2023), making it a net power exporter to neighbouring states. The combined effect is that Iran remains a structurally significant but sanctions-distorted actor in global energy, petrochemical, and agricultural commodity markets, with its trade patterns reflecting geopolitical alignments as much as comparative advantage.

🏢Top contributors to GDP

• National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)Oil and gas extractionState-owned entity responsible for virtually all of Iran's crude oil production of 4.112 million bbl/day (2023 est.) and management of its 208.6 billion barrel reserve base; the single largest contributor to government revenues and export earnings.
• National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC)Natural gas production and distributionState-owned operator of Iran's gas network, overseeing production of 265 billion cubic metres in 2023 and distribution of the 252 billion cubic metres consumed domestically; underpins the entire national energy system.
• National Petrochemical Company (NPC)PetrochemicalsState-affiliated holding company overseeing Iran's petrochemical sector, the source of Iran's top export commodity — plastics — and a major producer of fertilisers and caustic soda listed among Iran's core industries.
• Iran Khodro (IKCO)Automotive manufacturingIran's largest car manufacturer and a major domestic industrial employer; the country's dependence on imported vehicle parts and accessories — a top import category — reflects this sector's scale and its need for foreign components.
• Mobarakeh Steel CompanySteel and ferrous metal fabricationIran's largest steel producer, central to the ferrous and nonferrous metal fabrication industry listed among Iran's key industrial sectors, and linked to iron ore — Iran's second-largest export commodity in 2023.
• Bank Melli IranBanking and financial servicesIran's largest state-owned commercial bank; as the sources describe a traditionally state-controlled economy undergoing reform of state-owned financial entities, Bank Melli is the principal institution through which domestic credit and government transactions flow.