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The World Bank Group building is seen October 11, 2021 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

The World Bank has revised up its estimate of economic growth in Iran for 2021 as figures provided in the Bank’s latest report show Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 3.1% last year.

Tables provided in the Global Economic Prospects report published on Sunday showed that Iran’s real GDP growth in 2021 was 1% higher than forecast provided by the World Bank in June last year.

Iran’s GDP had risen by 3.4% in 2020 after a major contraction of 6.8% reported in 2019 that was mainly caused by US sanctions on the country’s exports of crude oil.

The growth in GDP for two successive years comes despite the fact that Washington toughened its sanctions on Iran last year when the country was struggling under one of the largest outbreaks of coronavirus in the Middle East.

The figures confirm earlier reports by economic authorities in Iran suggesting that the country had technically emerged from the double impacts of the American sanctions and the pandemic.

Iran recorded a higher growth in GDP last year compared to Saudi Arabia, according to the latest World Bank report which showed the world’s largest oil exporter had a GDP growth of 2.4% in 2021.

Iran’s economic growth was on par with a regional average of 3.1% reported for the Middle east and North Africa, showed the report.

The report revised up its growth forecasts for Iran for 2022 by 0.2% to 2.4% while revising down the country’s GDP forecast for 2023 by 0.1% to 2.2%.