Messy stuff

15 June 2009 By Martin Hutchinson

In countries like Iran, most of the wealth comes from the governmentcontrolled oil industry. Voters care more about who gets which share of the booty than about the government s economic competence. That favours antimarket populists like Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Putin.

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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won reelection in Iran with 63% of the vote on 85% turnout in an election that observers denounced as tainted.

Iran has a population of 66.4m, increasing at 0.9% and a GDP of $382bn at market exchange rates, or $12,800 per capita at purchasing power parity. Its growth rate was 6.5% in 2008, with inflation of 28%, a budget deficit of 12% of GDP in 2009, a current account surplus of 6% of GDP and $96bn of reserves. Petroleum represents 80% of exports and 27% of GDP at a $60/barrel oil price.

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