Tehran, Iran, July 27
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
An economist says there is little worry over how Iran 's freed assets will be managed.
Recently, many papers and officials from the economic and banking area have expressed worry that freeing Iran 's frozen assets by Western countries will lead to the import of a huge load of consumer goods.
The assets are to be freed after Iran struck a deal with the group P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) on its nuclear program. The deal entails the removal of economic sanctions on Iran, whereby the country's frozen assets will be freed.
What these papers and officials say is not irrelevant, Dr. Mohammad Tabibian, economist and veteran faculty member told Trend July 27.
However, he noted, there is not much resources to be freed to lead to anything like the spree we witnessed during the ninth and tenth Iranian presidential administrations.
During the presidency of former Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinejad (in office from 2005 to 2013), there were reports of large loads of not-so-necessary consumer goods that were imported legally but were actually a waste of public assets.
The incumbent administration is more sophisticated and is well aware of the pitfalls and will take care not to waste resources, Tabibian stated.
There is space for awareness rather than worry, he said.
The expert concluded that the assets have to be fed into infrastructural projects that would improve production.
Iran's frozen assets abroad amount to $29 billion, Iranian Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif said earlier.
He added that $23 billion of the Central Bank's assets are blocked in Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, and $6 billion of the petrodollars are blocked in India.
Edited by CN