TEHRAN – Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said the country imported over $19 billion worth of basic goods in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22), Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

“In the first half of the year, despite the decline in oil revenues, more than $19 billion of foreign currency was spent on importing goods into the country, of which about $11 billion was from non-oil exports,” Hemmati said during a meeting with Kish Free Zone’s businessmen.

“The central bank has also provided about $8 billion for imports of medicine and essential goods [in the mentioned period],” he added.

Mentioning the impact of U.S. sanctions on people’s livelihood, the governor noted that CBI seeks market stability and is planning to increase people's quality of life.

Referring to his visit to the Kish Free Zone production units, he said: "The activity of about 300 production units in this area reflects the efforts of the zone’s entrepreneurs and producers, and thankfully there have been many positive developments compared to the past.”

Hemmati further noted that the central bank will support all manufacturing, industrial and commercial activities in the country’s free zones, and will strive to provide the production units with the foreign currency they need in the second half of the year.

During the current year, Hemmati has repeatedly stated that his bank’s current programs are mainly focused on controlling liquidity and supporting domestic production.

Maintaining and strengthening the relative stability of the foreign exchange market by strengthening and improvement of the performance of NIMA, setting foreign currency exchange policies to support non-oil and oil exports and providing liquidity and working capital to maintain and boost domestic production and finally establishing a financial mechanism with neighboring countries were some of the plans which CBI head said is going to execute.

EF/MA