Ahmadinejad rejects economic criticism ahead of vote

By Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismissing criticism of his economic record ahead of next month's election, said on Saturday Iran was showing growth of 5-6 percent despite the global downturn.

Ahmadinejad's moderate rivals in the June 12 presidential vote have accused his government of squandering windfall revenue when oil prices were soaring, stoking inflation and leaving the country vulnerable when they started tumbling in mid-2008.

Analysts say high inflation and other economic bread-and-butter issues are likely to be a key battleground in the election campaign, possibly overshadowing the Islamic Republic's nuclear dispute with the West.

"We deeply believe that the economic situation of Iran these days is a stable one," the conservative president told a news conference for Iranian media broadcast live and translated by the English-language Press TV.

"There is negative growth everywhere you look (in the world) ... but in Iran the growth rate is positive and is over 5 percent and even 6 percent," he said.

In a 2008 report, the International Monetary Fund predicted that Iran's economy would expand by 4.9 percent in the 2010-11 year, down from 5.2 this year.

But that was before oil prices started plunging and a Western diplomat this week told Reuters he believed economic growth would slow sharply in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, perhaps approaching zero.

"SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS"