ABSTRACT
For Iran, the overall result of the Second Gulf War was positive, economically and diplomatically. The conflict helped it to project a high profile internationally, and benefit from the soaring oil prices, which almost trebled between August 1990 and March 1991. This improved its economy even though it was lumbered with the deleterious legacy of the 1980s war, poor performance of the nationalized industry, scarcity of basic materials, and inadequate distribution, transport, and import and export systems. In 1990-91 the annual growth rate soared to 10.5 percent while inflation declined to 8 percent. This encouraged President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to accelerate the pace of privatization even though his radical plan to end the oil and gas monopoly by the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was rejected by the Guardians Council.
