The government has assessed that the country’s economic growth is tapering off.

In the February "Green Book" economic assessment report released on Friday, the finance ministry said that the economy is slowing down, citing persistently high prices and a slowing recovery in domestic consumption amid a continuing slump in exports and worsening business sentiment.

After consistently mentioning a possible economic slowdown in the monthly report since June of last year, the latest edition is the first to definitively assess that the economy has slowed since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

The assessment follows a contraction in the economy in the fourth quarter last year amid sluggish exports, with the gross domestic product shrinking zero-point-four percent from the previous quarter to mark the first quarterly contraction since quarter two of 2020.

In January, exports shrank 16-point-six percent on-year, declining for the fourth consecutive month since last October to widen the country's trade deficit to a monthly record of 12-point-65 billion dollars last month.