Iranian economist: Selling oil bonds - win-win deal

TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 11

Trend:

Iran is not able to sell its oil at the moment, so it has not the necessary resources to run the country, said Iranian politician and economist Hossein Marashi said, Trend reports citing ILNA..

"In order not to put pressure on the people and the economy, we must think about providing resources from inside and outside, so that the country can pass the sanctions,” he added.

"This year is a difficult year for the country's economy,” the expert said adding that Iran faces a lack of oil revenues due to the sanctions and due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“The government can provide part of the required income from people's savings, which have been converted into coins and foreign currencies,” he said. "I made a proposal to the government to sell oil bonds to the people to replace the foreign currency and coins of households, so that the money will serve the national economy.”

He stressed that the goal is converting the household foreign currency and coins to oil bonds and inject them into the national economic cycle.

"For example, today people buy oil for $35 a barrel. If it reaches $60 after the coronavirus outbreak, the one who buys the bonds will definitely make a profit," the expert explained.

“The government will also benefit, because it will run the country at a lower cost,” Marashi said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's promise last week to announce an "economic breakthrough" soon gave way to speculations that Iran was ready to approve anti-money laundering laws mandated by the international community.

Then another proposal was put forward, namely selling oil bonds to people to pocket their savings in hard currencies with a promise to pay them back later with a profit. The statement has led many to believe that the Rouhani administration is going to sell "oil bonds" to Iranians against U.S. dollars and euros. This would keep the government going for another year.

During a meeting with Rouhani, centrist politician Hossein Marashi said that the government can keep the country's economy going for at least another year by collecting everyone's foreign currency and gold giving them "oil shares".

The next step in Marashi's plan is buying back the shares from citizens after three years.