Nevertheless, the IMF produces reams of good data that should be paid attention to. I sent this report because the conversation pertaining to the Iranian economy in general has been somewhat inadequately informed by data. There are several comments in circulation about the Iranian economy that needed to be rebutted, and this report does just that. (I don't want to go into details.)
Secondly, it is well known that a substantial number of "developing countries" have been over-accumulating reserves (and not only China). Although the magnitudes vary, the point in this regard is that this problem is not unique to Iran.
epoliticus
> Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:37:12 -0700 (PDT)
> From: dredmond at efn.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] On Iran
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Message-ID: <58392.75.34.103.244.1245634632.squirrel at webmail.efn.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Yes, interesting report. Leaving aside the IMF's obvious sado-monetarist
> reflexes - the usual panegyrics to deficit-cutting, privatization and
> related madness - it's clear Iran's accumulation regime has some
> fundamental problems. Its reserves went up from only $61 billion to $82
> billion at the peak of the oil boom. Presumably too much of that energy
> surplus wasn't saved or invested, but spent on consumption, sparking high
> internal inflation -- more money chasing imported goods, most likely.
>
> Iran urgently needs its own developmental state. It has some of the
> preconditions -- a big state sector, non-commercial foundations, plenty of
> oil reserves, large internal market, some history of industrialization.
> But then, this is true of most of Central Asia -- lots of potential,
> combined with the urgent need for a development strategy. Hopefully the
> CSTO, SCO and other Eurasian integration schemes will help shorten the
> birth-pangs of this process.