TEHRAN – Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) says promoting domestic production is the main priority of the country’s banking system in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 19), the bank’s portal reported.

Speaking in a seminar called "Banking System and Surge in Production", which was attended by First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, as well as the managing directors of banks and members of the CBI’s executive board, Abdolnasser Hemati said: “Although the enemies expected our economy to collapse due to the U.S. sanctions, following the government and the CBI’s strategies, we are currently witnessing economic growth.”

As the main driver of the current economic growth, non-oil exports and domestic production have become the priority of the banking system, Hemmati added.

Further in the seminar, Hemmati underlined some of the CBI’s achievements in various areas including "monetary policy", "credit", "foreign currency" and "payment systems" and said: "These achievements have been realized due to the efforts of the banking system and the CBI’s correct policies, and if the banking system is supported, we will see greater achievements in the future.”

The official also mentioned the bank’s strategies for supporting domestic production, saying: “the Central Bank has taken effective measures, including granting facilities to production companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and knowledge-based companies to support this sector.”

During the meeting, members of the CBI’s Executive Board presented reports in the areas of "monetary policy", "credit", "foreign currency", as well as “monitoring" and "payment systems", and managing directors of some of the country’s public and private banks explored the mentioned issues and pointed out problems and proposed solutions.

EF/MA