TEHRAN- Government tries its best to preserve domestic economy on its current positive trend not only by the end of current Iranian calendar year 1396 (March 20) but also by the end of the upcoming year, governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced addressing the 57th annual general assembly of the CBI on Sunday.

As IRNA quoted Valiollah Seif, the economic achievements in year 1395, such as the reduction of inflation to a single-digit rate after 26 years, achieving a positive trade balance, and reaching economic growth rate of 12.5 percent, are the results of adopting strict monetary and financial policies on the way to fulfil the Resistance Economy-a set of guidelines promoted by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has called for Iran to make its economy more self-sufficient so that it can resist outside pressure.

Seif described that one of the main CBI policies in 1396 has been controlling foreign exchange rate as well as reinforcing financing projects which improve domestic production and creation of sustainable jobs. “Since the beginning of 1396 (Marc 21, 2017) till the end of the 11th month of this year (February 19, 2018) 140 trillion rials (about $3.13 billion) of banking facilities has been granted to 19,400 small and medium-sized Iranian enterprises,” he said. “During the first ten months of the present year, Iranian banking system has paid 4.62 quadrillion rials (about $103 billion) of loans to various economic sectors, and the figure shows eight percent rise in comparison with the same period in 1395,” he added.

The CBI governor also underlined the importance of fruitful post-sanctions environment which allowed Iran to expand its international banking ties and improve attraction of foreign finance. 

Some achievements have been achieved in boosting Iran’s banking relations with foreign countries, such as the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Austria, China, and South Korea in the country’s post-sanction era, according to Seif. Iran has also signed some short, medium, and long-term agreements, at the total value of $54.3 billion, with major European and Asian banks to fund domestic economic projects, he informed.

HJ/MA