WASHINGTON — Sanctions have had a mixed impact on the Iranian economy, boosting local agriculture and tourism even as they have depressed oil sales and made it harder for Iran to import automotive parts and some medicines, Iran’s minister of economic affairs and finance, Shamseddin Hosseini says.

In an interview with Al-Monitor Friday [April 19] evening in Washington, where he was attending the semi-annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, Hosseini said Iran would welcome US measures to designate authorized banking channels for humanitarian purposes but suggested that any improvement in overall US-Iran relations would depend on US recognition of what Iran regards as its right to produce nuclear fuel.

Hosseini is among a tiny group of Iranian officials allowed to visit the US capital periodically. His current visit is his eighth or ninth since he was appointed to office five years ago, he said. 

Sanctions tied to Iran’s nuclear program have had a severe impact on the Iranian economy, reducing oil exports by half last year and making it difficult for Iran to repatriate earnings for the oil it does sell. Experts say last year was the toughest since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 and that inflation and unemployment are at record levels. According to the latest figures released by the IMF last week, the Iranian economy contracted by 1.9% last year and will shrink another 1.3% this year. Growth will resume next year, the IMF predicted, but only by 1.1%.