TEHRAN (Iran News) – The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said that net foreign assets held by the bank and Iranian non-banking financial institutions have surged by over a quarter over the year ending March 19.
A Thursday report by IRNA cited CBI figures as showing that foreign assets had increased by 27.4 percent over the last Iranian year, to reach over $62 billion.
It said the net foreign assets had more than doubled compared to 2016-17, adding that assets held by Iranian commercial banks were excluded from the calculations.
The CBI said its own foreign reserves had also increased by 17.6 percent year-on-year in March, to reach over $29 billion.
It added that CBI assets in foreign banks had increased by less than a quarter compared to 2016, when Iran was relieved of international sanctions after signing a major nuclear agreement with world powers.
Iran came under a series of new and unilateral sanctions by the United States in 2018 when the US government decided to pull out of the nuclear agreement.
That has caused a decline in Iran’s exports of oil which is a major source of earning foreign currency for the country. However, funds related to previous sales of crude are still held in banks outside Iran mainly because sanctions make transfers into Iran almost impossible.
In the meantime, the Iranian government has opted to use some of the funds held in foreign banks for purchase of certain goods and services.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
