Khoy Bazaar located in northwestern Iran. Photo: Wikipedia.

A mission from the International Monetary Fund concluded on a recent visit to Iran that the country will see an improvement in its economy in the coming year, despite partial economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Numbers provided by the IMF show the country’s GDP contracted 1.5% in 2013, but is expected to grow 1.3% in 2014.

The mission visited Tehran from October 29 to November 7 to review economic developments in the country, the IMF wrote on its website.

“The IMF mission held discussions with senior officials from the central bank and government, as well as with a broad spectrum of representatives from financial institutions and the business community,” the IMF said.

“These discussions focused on the need for Iran to tackle high inflation and restore economic growth, as well as on the need for Iran to begin addressing long-standing policy and structural challenges in the economy… The authorities’ understanding of the challenges and the high expectations of several sectors in the economy provide a timely opportunity for advancing such reforms, notwithstanding the difficult external environment.”

An IMF team is set to return to Iran early next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“It’s early days, but in the limited interactions we’ve had with [the new Iranian government of President Hassan Rouhani], they seem to be very clear that they do have a set of issues they need to tackle, and they’re beginning to form plans to do so,” Masood Ahmed, the IMF’s director for the Middle East and Central Asia, said earlier this week. “I hope by the time we go there next year, we’ll have an opportunity to interact with them on those plans and offer any inputs we can.”