TEHRAN – Iran’s 34th Islamic Banking Conference kicked off at the place of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in the capital Tehran on Tuesday, Tasnim News Agency reported.

The two-day annual event is attended by the managing directors of the country’s banks, university professors, and monetary analysts, as well as senior government officials including the CBI Governor Mohammadreza Farzin and the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Abdolnaser Hemmati.

As reported, in this conference, issues such as banking governance, reform of banking laws, banking business model, and the role of banks in supporting domestic production are discussed in specialized roundtables.

Iran’s Q1 GDP growth stands at 4.2%

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Farzin pointed to the recent upward trend of the country’s economic growth and said the growth of non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached 4.2 percent in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-June 20).

“GDP in spring was 4.2 percent. The combination of the growth shows that we are in a better situation in agriculture, we also had good growth in the oil sector, however, we faced a decrease in growth in the mining and services sectors,” he said.

According to the CBI governor, the inflation in the country is also expected to be curbed to 30 percent in the current calendar year.

Referring to the role of CBI in economic growth, he said: “Since last year, we faced political and security shocks, but fortunately, with the proper leadership in the country and the cooperation of the people and the national unity, we are currently in a stable situation. We managed the impulses in monetary and currency variables, although we still have some concerns.”

Farzin finally noted that the CBI expects the country’s GDP growth to stand at 3.7 percent by the end of the current year.

EF/MA