Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has advised his fellow people to refrain from purchasing foreign currencies in order to protect their assets.
“My advice to the people is to refrain from stepping in this risky path [currency market] for their own good. There are much better ways for people to benefit from their money and assets,” Rouhani told a press conference in Tehran aired live by the public broadcaster on Feb. 6.
The US dollar over the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2017) has surged against the Iranian national currency by at least 25 percent, posting 46,864 on Tuesday. The rate of euro has also jumped by 45 percent to stand at 58,937 rials on the same day.
Saying that the currency market is experiencing imbalance days, Rouhani denied that the recent developments in the currency market are linked to the economic and commercial reasons.
“There are no commercial reasons [for surge in currency prices] because … our income in foreign currency is more than our expenses.”
He further dismissed the allegations accusing the government of intentionally pushing up the rate of foreign currencies against the national currency, rial.
“This decision could be made in case the government faced a budget deficit. This year, we have no budget deficit,” he added.
The president described the “psychological factors” as the main reason behind the surging currency prices, assuring the nation about a better future.
The spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, on Feb. 4 announced that security officials had brought at least six individuals to prosecution over the recent fluctuations in the currency rate.
Iranian government’s total revenues stood at 840.4 trillion rials (some $23 billion based on official rate of 36,600 rials per each USD) during first eight months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Nov. 21).
Meanwhile, over 1,173.4 trillion rials of revenues were envisaged in the national budget for the mentioned period, which means that the government revenues were materialized by 71.6 percent, based on latest data released by Central Bank of Iran (CBI).
Total revenues of the Iranian government registered a rise by 7 percent during the eight-month period, year-on-year.