Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.3
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's Industry Minister Mohammadreza Nematzadeh says saving the country depends on reviving the national economy, IRNA reported on February 3.
Today, paying special attention to production and trade is a matter of high importance, he added.
"The industry and mining sector accounts for 37 percent of the gross national product. So, if this sector is boosted, a large portion of economic activities will be improved."
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Valiollah Seif, has confirmed that the national banking system's bad loans has reached 800 trillion rials (about $32 billion), the Mehr News Agency reported on January 8.
"Many factors are involved in the cause of the bad loans such as international sanctions and mismanagements in the banking system," Seif said.
The Central Bank has set up a special working group to follow up the case and collect the debts, he noted.
In November, Seif said Iran's economic growth rate will hit zero per cent by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014).
The economic growth rate hit minus 5.8 per cent in the past year. We have taken drastic measures to curb liquidity growth and help stop the negative growth rate of the national economy, he added.
"Signs of the economic growth can be seen in production growth and a liquidity decline in the market," Seif explained.
The Central Bank of Iran has recently reported that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate excluding oil sector, was 3.2 percent in the Iranian calendar year 1390 which ended in March 2012, ISNA reported.
The Central Bank has said that the GDP growth rates were 6.38 percent, 3.16 percent and 0.83 percent in the years 1389, 1388 and 1387 respectively, while the statistical centre has put the figures at 5.8 percent, three percent and 0.8 percent respectively.