Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 26
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The Central Bank of Iran has put the country's foreign debt in the past Iranian solar year which ended on March 20, at $7.6 billion, the Mehr News Agency reported on November 26.
The bank also announced that the national economy contracted by 5.8 per cent including the oil sector and 3.1 per cent excluding the oil sector.
The unemployment rate is expected to have risen to 12.2 per cent in the past year.
According to the bank, the administration earned over 568 trillion rials (about $22.5 billion).
On November 9, Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia said that the low economic growth rate is currently the main challenge for the national economy.
The ministry will focus on improving living standards through curbing inflation and growing business, he stated.
Meanwhile, Masoud Nili, the Iranian president's economic advisor said that major economic reforms should be carried out in four sectors of the Iranian economy.
According to him, the foreign currency market, the cash subsidy payment, the privatisation process, and the banking system should be reformed.
Once the four sectors of the economy are reformed, economic activities will go on normally and then the goal of economic improvement will be realised, he explained.