Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.28/ Trend G.Mehdi/
Eighteen Iranian banks which had been paid $42.3 billion in aid by the Central Bank have spent the sum inappropriately; the Mehr News Agency quoted a member of the headquarters for fighting economic corruption as saying.
Ezzatollah Yousefian Molla said the Central Bank had paid the banks including state-run and private $42.3 billion in aid, but they either sold the foreign currency on the free market or paid it out as cash prizes to their clientele.
The Central Bank should legally deal with the malfeasant officials, he added.
Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani has recently said that $18 billion liquidity is being held by people. Moreover, by the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20) around $22 billion had been paid to importers.
Iran's rial has lost nearly 40 per cent of its value against the U.S. dollar compared to August.
In September, the Fars news agency quoted Iran's Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani as saying that liquidity in Iran is now around 3.95 trillion rials ($322 billion) compared with 650 billion rials ($53 billion) seven years ago,.
He said that the liquidity growth rate fell to 19.4 per cent in the past year which ended on March 19, 2012, compared to 25.2 per cent in preceding year.