Press TV - A new report by the World Bank Group has projected that Iran would be able to restore its positive economic growth next year despite pressures felt as a result of the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic and sanctions imposed by the United States.

The World Bank said in its June 2020 flagship report titled the Global Economic Prospect and published on Tuesday that Iran would see its gross domestic product (GDP) shrink again this year by 5.3 percent, up from minus 8.2 percent in 2019.

The report said, however, that the Iranian economy would return to the positive economic growth zone in 2021 by growing 2.1 percent.

The forecast is a revision of figures provided in January when the World Bank said that the Iranian economy would grow by 1.1 percent in 2021.

The report admitted that most of the economies around the world would experience a negative growth in 2020 mainly because of the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic which has led to long-run closures in key sectors of many economies.

It said Iran, the worst-hit country by the pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa region, would gradually emerge of the crises and would feel less of a pressure of the disease on domestic consumption and the services sector, including tourism, in 2021.

The report also pointed to the fact that Iran has managed to reduce its inflation rate on a year-by-year basis over the past few years despite problems faced because of the American sanctions and the spread of the coronavirus.