Asia

Home page

Asia

President: Iranâ€™s forex reserves over $100b

30 October 2010 22:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Monday that Iran definitely has over 100 billion dollars in foreign currency reserves, APA reports quoting Mehr News Agency.

"The country’s foreign currency reserves have been estimated at 100 billion dollars, but it is definitely more than this figure," Ahmadinejad told participants at a national conference on development of the banking system in Tehran.

The president also said that financial resources should be allocated to various economic sectors at the appropriate time and in proportion to their weight.

He went on to say that the people’s concerns about housing will be resolved in the next two years through efforts by banks.

Central Bank of Iran Governor Mahmoud Bahmani told the conference that Iran has converted 15 percent of its foreign exchange reserves into gold stocks, and thus there is no need to import gold for the next ten years.

He also said that the country’s foreign currency reserve has gained several billion dollars in value as a result of the rise in global gold prices.

On October 23, Bahmani said that according to World Bank statistics, Iran has $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

Provided that the World Bank statistics are true, any country with this amount of reserves will never hit a dead end, the ISNA news agency quoted Bahmani as saying.

It may be possible to exert pressure on a small country with 4 to 5 billion dollars in reserves, but the situation in regard to Iran is different, he said in a reference to efforts by Western countries to pressure Iran financially.

He added that Iran’s gold reserves have multiplied several times over the past two years.

Bahmani stated that gold consumption in the country is currently 30 tons per year and thus there will remain ample supplies for the next 10 years, even if the Central Bank does not increase its gold reserves for a decade.

In August, Bahmani said that Tehran had withdrawn the assets held by its banks in Europe to counter new financial sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear program.

"The Central Bank has transferred the bank assets from Europe. Currently there is no problem in regard to blocking of assets of Iranian banks by the European Union," Bahmani added.

The preemptive measure was a precautionary response to a potential European decision to freeze Iranian assets, he explained.

Bahmani also said 900 million tons of basic goods have been stored to prevent any possible sudden price rises in the country.

The decision to store basic goods was made primarily to control prices, since the subsidy reform plan is set to go into effect in the next few weeks.