TEHRAN – The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said on Monday that his bank is focusing all its efforts to remove the currency-related barriers in the way of the country’s private sector and cooperatives’ trade activities, IRIB reported.

“The private sector and cooperatives are the driving force behind the country's economic growth, and the central bank is working to eliminate all the currency-related barriers in their way as far as possible,” Abdolnasser Hemmati said in a periodic meeting session of the heads of the country’s chambers of commerce, cooperatives, and guilds.

“Given the heavy and unprecedented sanctions against the country, our economy is in a difficult condition, and the central bank is forced to adopt policies which are in line with the interest of the country as a whole,” Hemmati said.

He underlined the important role of the private sector and cooperatives in supporting the country’s economy in the sanctions era, saying “It would not have been possible to withstand the sanctions without the support of them [the private sector and cooperatives] and the central bank alone would not be able to handle the difficult situation.”

He further mentioned the Open Market Operation (OMO) which was officially launched in the country last week, noting that “this operation is a new monetary policy which has been implemented in the country after decades of speculation, and we cannot expect it to work overnight.”

CBI officially launched an OMO system on January 17, as part of its monetary policy to curb inflation, control interest rates in the interbank market and manage liquidity, IRIB reported.

According to Hemmati, the main purpose of open market operations is to control liquidity and inflation in the market.

“Typically, central banks conduct open market operations or buy and sell securities to achieve their macroeconomic goals, namely inflation control and economic growth stability”, Hemmati said.

EF/MA