IMF Forecasts Economic Growth for Iran

Iran will manage to bring its inflation lower and return to growth next year despite western sanctions over its nuclear program, according to projections from the International Monetary Fund unveiled Tuesday.
The IMF forecasts, which also include a trade surplus this year and next, suggest that although the sanctions are damaging Iran by cutting its oil exports, they are not likely to cause a collapse of its economy.
The IMF analysis, which is based on statistics provided by the Iranian government, predicted a 1.1 economic growth for Iran in 2012. Iran’s gross domestic product was after 2 percent growth in 2011.
The IMF also projected GDP would expand next year by 0.8 percent. It expects inflation to moderate to 21.8 percent in 2013 from 25.2 percent in 2012.
Iran’s current account, its balance of trade in goods and services, is expected to enjoy a surplus of 3.4 percent of GDP this year and 1.3 percent next year, the IMF said.
The forecast suggests Iran’s trade surplus may not face a crippling balance of payments crisis due to the sanctions.
The forecasts assume an average global oil price of $106.18 a barrel in 2012 and $105.10 in 2013, the IMF said.

Iran Lauded
In July 2011, before western sanctions were tightened, the IMF issued a report praising the Iranian government’s decision to slash energy and food subsidies, calling the policy ‘a unique opportunity for Iran to reform its economy and accelerate economic growth and development’.

Americans to Attend Shiraz Seminar

Iranian and American specialists will participate in the International Nutrition Seminar in Shiraz Medical University on Oct. 11.

Tehran to Host Quality Engineering Confab

The First International Quality Engineering Conference will be held in Tehran during December 3-4. Secretary of the conference, Rasoul...

Angry Greek Protesters Greet Merkel

Greek police fired teargas and stun grenades at protesters in central Athens on Tuesday when they tried to break through a barrier and reach visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a ban on protests, gathering in Syntagma square to voice their displeasure with the German leader, who many blame for forcing painful cuts on Greece in exchange for two EU-IMF bailout packages worth over 200 billion euros, Reuters reported.
Some pelted police with rocks, bottles and sticks, and tried to bust through a barricade set up to protect Merkel and her delegation, who were meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at his office several hundred meters away.
Police detained dozens of protesters in what they said was one of the biggest demonstrations in months.
Merkel is visiting Greece for the first time since Europe’s debt crisis erupted in the country three years ago to deliver a message of support, but no new money, to a nation hammered by recession and fighting to stay in the euro.
She was given the red carpet treatment and full military honors when she arrived at Athens airport in the early afternoon. Samaras greeted her with a handshake as she exited the German air force jet and a band played the German and Greek national anthems. In the center of Athens, the reception was less warm.

New Oilfields to Yield 25,000 bpd in Fars

The development projects of Sarvestan and Saadat Abad oil fields in Fars province will be complete in the near future, an oil industry official said, adding that the fields will start producing 15 thousand barrels of oil per day in the first phase of development.
Head of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC) Mehdi Fakour said Sarvestan and Saadat Abad oil fields will yield 25 thousand oil bpd once the final phase is complete, Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday. One of the problems faced by development plans of Sarvestan and Saadat Abad is that they have been defined as one project, the official said.
“If Servestan oil field had had a separate pipeline, oil production from the field would have started last month.”
He added Saadat Abad oil field was launched last month after completion of nitrogen, air, safety, storage, pump and furnace units and it will fully come online in the next fifteen days.
The oil to be produced by Sarvestan and Saadat Abad oilfields will be transferred to Shiraz Oil Refinery to replace Gachsaran oil as feedstock because of its high quality.
Oil from the two oil fields is produced by using 12 wells of which 10 are for production, one for injection of gas and one for injection of wastewater and desalination waters.
Sarvestan oil field is located 110 kilometers southeast of Shiraz city and Saadat Abad is 20 kilometers to the north of Sarvestan oil field.

President: Crushing Response Awaits Possible Aggression

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Tehran will never start any war against other countries, but will give a crushing response to any foreign aggression.
“The possibility of attack against Iran cannot be ignored but it can be said that Iran’s response to any aggression will be crushing” and will make the enemies regret their deeds, Ahmadinejad said in a televised interview with Iran-based Jam-e-Jam TV.
“Iranians have and will never start any war but they have always been good defenders and have always defended their territories in a memorable and historical form,” he added.
Ahmadinejad said, “We should for sure pass through a tumultuous and controversial period of time.”
Israel and its close ally the United States accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations.
Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.
Iran strongly denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population when fossil fuel eventually runs dry.

Why I Love Columbus Day

By Johnny Barber

I love Columbus Day. Each year, I recall the simple song I learned as a child about the man who “discovered” America. I still recall the innocent boy whose imagination was taken by the story of adventure and discovery.
In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
On Columbus Day, I reflect on the facts of that fateful discovery. Hispaniola at the time of Columbus’ arrival was home to as many as 300,000 people. On seeing the Arawak people, Columbus wrote in his journal, “At daybreak great multitudes of men came to the shore, all young and of fine shapes, and very handsome. Their eyes are large and very beautiful.” In the same entry he wrote, “It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion.” Columbus kidnapped up to 25 people, although only seven or eight survived the journey back to Spain. By 1496, it is estimated that one third of the population had been killed or taken as slaves. In 1592, fewer than 200 Indigenous people remained. By 1555, none survived.
I realize every lie and distortion I hold of my country began in that classroom all those years ago.
I love Columbus Day. It reminds me that often, even the most God-fearing individuals are the most self-deluded. In the spring of 1493, Columbus wrote to a sponsor, “They are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts.” Later in the letter Columbus went on to say, “Their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need ... and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped.” Though he was aware of their generosity and selflessness, rather than emulate them, he decided he would subjugate them. Columbus was the first slave trader in the Americas.
Columbus Day reminds me that my country’s origin was based on violence, subjugation, racism and genocide. As the native population was decimated, it was deemed necessary to bring slaves from Africa to the “New World” for cheap, disposable labor.
Throughout the years when America was a slave republic, the wealthiest Americans were those who owned the most human beings. But we should not forget that slave owners spanned all classes. This, from America, the country founded on the idea that all human beings have equal intrinsic worth, value, and rights. The “land of the free, home of the brave,” indeed.
I love Columbus Day. It reminds me that greed corrupts utterly. Columbus returned to Hispaniola to colonize the island.

UK Claims on Iran’s Nuclear Program Under Fire

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has criticized the United Kingdom’s Defense Secretary Philip Hammond for his comments on Iranian nuclear energy program.
Hammond had on Sunday described Iran’s nuclear energy program as directed toward making a nuclear bomb.
Mehmanparast said Monday that Hammond’s comments only reveal the anger of the UK government at Tehran’s progress, Press TV reported.
He noted that such remarks indicate that London’s all-out efforts to block Iran’s path to development and prosperity have failed.
Mehmanparast further stated that such outrageous comments prove that British officials are ignorant about accepted international mechanisms, such as the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The official emphasized that the Iranian nation will not back away from its inalienable right to a peaceful nuclear energy program under the NPT.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the NPT and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

UAE Warned Over Islands
The Foreign Ministry warned on Tuesday it could look at cutting diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates because of a festering dispute over three Persian Gulf islands, the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb, and Abu Mousa.

UN: World Hungry at 870m

The United Nations said Tuesday its 2009 headline-grabbing announcement that 1 billion people in the world were hungry was off-target and that the number is actually more like 870 million.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization blamed flawed methodology and poor data for the bum projection, and said it now uses a much more accurate set of parameters and statistics to calculate its annual estimate of the world’s hungry, AP reported.
FAO issued its 2012 state of food insecurity report on Tuesday, and its core point was to set the record straight about the number of the world’s undernourished people, applying the more accurate data retroactively to 1990.
And the good news, FAO said, is that the number of hungry people has actually been declining steadily--rather than increasing--over the past two decades, although progress has slowed since the 2007-2008 food crises and the global economic downturn.
“We have good news, we have made some progress in reducing hunger,” Jose Graziano da Silva, the FAO director-general, told a press conference launching the report.
FAO said that if the right action is taken now to boost economic growth and invest in agriculture, particularly in poor countries, the UN goal of reducing by one-half the number of the world’s hungry people by 2015 is very much within reach.
To be sure, 870 million hungry people is still far too many hungry people, said the heads of the three UN food agencies in a forward to the report.
“In today’s world of unprecedented technical and economic opportunities, we find it entirely unacceptable that more than 100 million children under the age of five are underweight, and are therefore unable to realize their full socio-economic and human potential,” they wrote.
FAO made headlines in 2009 when it announced that 1 billion people--one-sixth of the world’s population--were undernourished. A high-level summit was called at FAO headquarters in Rome, where the pope spoke. The UN chief went on a daylong hunger strike to show solidarity with the 1 billion.
The Group of Eight devoted much of its summit that year to pledging $20 billion for seeds, fertilizers and tools to help poor nations feed themselves.
It turns out, though, that the projections were wrong. They were calculated using figures from non-UN sources that were fed into the UN’s number-crunching model, because FAO was expected to quickly come up with an estimate of how many people might go hungry from the dual crises of high food prices and the global downturn, said Kostas Stamoulis, director of FAO’s agricultural development economics division.
“There was considerable fear that that combination of lower incomes and higher prices was going to cause significant undernourishment,” said Jomo Kwame Sundaram, FAO’s assistant director-general for economic and social development.

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