Tehran, Iran, July 8
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Although the Iranian government's debts to the country's banks have grown, the fact that the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has handled inflation and economic growth in a good way brings signs of hope, Said Laylaz, economist and former presidential advisor told Trend July 8.
The Central Bank of Iran in its latest report announced that the government's debt to the Iranian banking system grew by 37 percent to hit 1,040 trillion rials (over $35.3 billion at each dollar being equal to 29,437 rials) for the previous Iranian fiscal year (which ended March 20).
Of that, 1,004 trillion rials belonged to the government itself and 35.54 trillion rials to governmental companies and institutes.
The mere digit of the debt is not important-for example, the U.S. government's general debt is now $19 trillion, but what is important is the debt's annual growth and the proportion of the debt to the GDP, Laylaz said.
According to Laylaz, the growth of the governmental debt grew very rapidly during the administration of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, Rouhani managed to lower the debt growth greatly, for the government managed to establish good financial discipline, which is what matters, the expert stated.
Laylaz hoped that despite growing governmental debt, situations wiould improve witnessed by the fact that during its 22 months in office, the Rouhani economic team has reduced inflation by two thirds.
When Rouhani came to office Iran 's economic inflation was over 40 percent. Now it is below 15 percent.
According to a report by Iran 's Statistics Center the country's economic inflation at the end of the Iranian month of Khordad (June 21) was registered at 14.2 percent.
Edited by CN