TEHRAN (Iran News) – A high-ranking official in Iran Finance Ministry says Iran’s foreign trade increased 37.8% last year comparing to the preceding year, adding that the monetary base growth at the beginning of the current government was 42.1% while it has fallen to 27.8% in June 2022.
Speaking on the economic performance and monetary statistics and liquidity growth during the current government in its first year in office, Ebrahim Siami said that the liquidity growth rate in June of this year reached 37.8% while the figure was 42.8% when the current government began its work in last October and it shows downward trend.
He added that monetary base is one of the effective factors in liquidity growth, emphasizing that in the early days of current government (in August 2021), the monetary base growth was 42.1% while the growth slowed down to 27.8% in this June. It means one of the policies of the current government was to control monetary base which is main reason behind liquidity increase in recent years.
Siami went on to say that according to the Customs Administration statistics, the value of non-oil exports of Iran grew last year by 39.6% in terms of value and 8.6% in terms of weight which shows a considerable growth comparing to the preceding year.
He also said that inflation rate also has slowed down during the current government because of reforming the preferential forex policy by the government, adding that after reforming the prices and implementing the project for publicizing the subsidies, prices rose but it was not predominantly for the sake of reforming the official forex rate of 4200 tomans but some of the price hike was because of the anticipated inflation in the society due to implementation of this policy.
He added that a review of inflation growth rate according to the Statistical Center of Iran shows the annual inflation rate was 46% by September 2021 and it declined to 38.7% in April 2022 before implementation of preferential forex policy as the figure rose to 40.5% after it. He admitted that the current condition is not satisfactory for national economy and all should work together to reduce this inflation rate as much as possible.
Siami reiterated that the government has slowed down the pace of inflation rate after a rise in it in wake of implementing the preferential forex rate.
He then stressed that the foreign trade volume exceeded $101b last year while the figure was $73.7% in the preceding year as the figure shows 37.8% trade volume growth.
Touching upon fall in production and economic growth, he said according to the Central Bank report, the GDP improved in the second half of comparing the first half of last year, adding that the figure was 3.3% in first half and rose to 4.4% in the second half and GDP was 2.4% excluding oil revenues.
On the unemployment rate, Siami said that the rate has declined in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year and it is because of more investments and return of the production units to the pre-pandemic era.
He also pointed to the growth of foreign transit last year, adding that the transit was around 10m tons before the pandemic while it soared to 11.2m tons last year. He reiterated that 39% growth in foreign transit is the outcome of economic diplomacy with the regional states which has increased considerably comparing to the pre-pandemic era.
