Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7
By Khalid Kazimov -- Trend:
The Central Bank of Iran has not withdrawn $12 billion from the National Development Fund, said NDF President Safdar Hosseini as he took back a claim he had made last week.
"My words had been interpreted as saying it was the Central Bank which withdrew the $12 billion, which is not true," he said, Fars news agency reported September 7.
Last week Hosseini had lashed out at the Iranian banking network, especially the Central Bank of Iran for illegal withdrawals.
"What I had said was to criticize the Central Bank for past actions," he said, trying to correct himself.
Headed by Valiollah Seif in the 11th presidential administration, the Central Bank has rather played a decisive role in controlling inflation, liquidity growth, and currency fluctuations, he said.
The NDF is Iran 's sovereign wealth fund. It was founded in 2011 to replace the Oil Stabilization Fund. Based on Article 84 of the Fifth Five-year Socio Economic Development Plan (2011-2015), the National Development Fund was established to transform oil and gas revenues to productive investment for future generation.
The money will increasingly be deposited in domestic banks. Accordingly, 20 percent of the oil income is to be transferred to the National Development Fund and this percentage increase 3 percent annually until the end of the fifth development plan.
Early in May an Iranian MP Masoud Mirkazemi said that the government illegally took $4.1 billion out of the NDF in the last days of the previous Iranian fiscal year (which ended on March 20). Additionally, on Jan. 30 another Iranian MP Mousareza Servati took to the parliament the issue of the drawing $5.3 billion out of the Central Bank money.
Edited by CN